http://hamiltonkent.com
Tue, 30 October 2018 11:23:00Tue, 30 October 2018 11:23:00The State of the Industry with HK’s President, Part One: Awareness and FundingAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/the-state-of-the-industry-with-hk-s-president-part-one-awareness-and-funding/Those who are invested in underground infrastructure might not be surprised by reports decrying the aging, chronically underfunded state of the industry today. Combined with media accounts of combined sewer overflows (CSOs), sinkholes, bridge failures and more, these reports stress the urgent need for infrastructure repairs and restoration across the board. &ldquo;News networks will go someplace where a car was swallowed by a sinkhole,&rdquo; says Bernard Gr&eacute;goire, president of Hamilton Kent, &ldquo;or a highway is completely blocked, and traffic is diverted elsewhere because of a culvert collapse. The social cost of these incidents are broadcast a lot more than before.&rdquo; One side-effect of increased media coverage is that it adds pressure to the municipalities or infrastructure owners who are selecting these contracts. &ldquo;When they have to do these emergency repairs too often, it doesn&rsquo;t make good publicity and of course it brings great costs. Municipalities have started to change how they approach new projects,&rdquo; says Gr&eacute;goire. Municipalities have to specify not only the type of material but also the method of installation. In addition, Gr&eacute;goire says more and more cities have begun to require post-installation inspections as one of the project&rsquo;s main conditions. &ldquo;The inspection during and after installation, verification of watertightness, validity, camera inspections, and so on &mdash; these will ensure that what was laid out in the tender is actually installed,&rdquo; he adds. &ldquo;They want to know it will provide the long-term properties they&rsquo;re looking for.&rdquo; With increased visibility from digital and news media coverage, Gr&eacute;goire believes the landscape of underground infrastructure funding will begin to shift. &ldquo;With the ASCE rating and other reports, people are aware of the need [for infrastructure spending],&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;They see the condition of the roads. I think it will remain top of mind for the government, and they will find funding &mdash; even if it&rsquo;s only one year at a time or one project at a time.&rdquo; He adds that many industry players have been exploring the merits of public-private partnerships (PPPs). Although they may come with caveats, such as difficulties in controlling costs, even flawed PPPs can act as a learning exercise for future endeavors. &ldquo;PPPs are more often a funding avenue for municipal and sometimes state or provincial projects,&rdquo; Gr&eacute;goire adds. &ldquo;Unfortunately, they perhaps focus too much on emergency repair as opposed to long-term plans.&rdquo; He expects heightened pressure on governments, both in Canada and the United States, to develop more long-term solutions. In addition, he says the low-cost, lowest-bidder approach to infrastructure projects will have to change. That&rsquo;s where life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA), combined with traditional funding approaches, could benefit the industry. &ldquo;An LCCA takes into account the type of product, their properties, the way they&rsquo;re installed, the way they&rsquo;re inspected, and the maintenance cost over time,&rdquo; says Gr&eacute;goire. &ldquo;That, combined with the lower bid [approach], is a long-term solution that will help us build better infrastructure.&rdquo; Watertight products go hand-in-hand with that long-term vision. Gr&eacute;goire gives the example of a new storm water system being installed in a city. &ldquo;You have all these costs: permitting beforehand, the right of ways, closing the roads while the work is being done, digging the trench, pipe material, back fill material, and the inspections after,&rdquo; he explains. &ldquo;If you wanted to make a difference, you would add a better gasketing system to make it more watertight.&rdquo; He estimates the added cost of the watertight system would add about one percent to the total. &ldquo;That little premium of one percent could make a huge difference on the longevity of the project,&rdquo; Gr&eacute;goire says, &ldquo;The result would last 75 years instead of 50, or even far less in cases with poor installation practices.&rdquo; An extended lifecycle often translates to millions or billions of dollars in savings because it reduces the frequency of those costly, time-consuming installation projects and minimizes the need for emergency repairs. In the case of a sanitary sewer, it also prevents infiltration and protects the environment. Although the solutions are clear to Gr&eacute;goire, he admits the politics of infrastructure can sometimes get in the way of progress. &ldquo;When you build a sanitary system, you don&rsquo;t have public awareness,&rdquo; he says, noting that politicians typically can&rsquo;t expect recognition as an incentive to start new projects. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s out of sight, out of mind. Unfortunately, it often takes a catastrophic failure to make infrastructure come back as a top priority.&rdquo; With that in mind, he stresses the importance of widespread engagement and communication between the public and the infrastructure industry. It may take many more years for meaningful change to take hold, but Gr&eacute;goire feels the industry will catch up, slowly but surely, in response to heightened awareness. &ldquo;The more people are active &mdash; the more they are socially or environmentally conscious &mdash; the more these issues will bubble up and be prioritized,&rdquo; he says.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/the-state-of-the-industry-with-hk-s-president-part-one-awareness-and-funding/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/the-state-of-the-industry-with-hk-s-president-part-one-awareness-and-funding/Tue, 30 October 2018 11:23:00 Underground infrastructure: What’s coming down the pipe?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/underground-infrastructure-what-s-coming-down-the-pipe/American infrastructure is in critical condition and the need for investment has remained constant for decades. That said, there have been several forces at play in recent years, from politics to changing weather patterns, and it&rsquo;s important to understand how those different factors influence investment in U.S. infrastructure. Here&rsquo;s a few stories that reflect the state of the industry today. The House authorizes funding for safe drinking water initiatives Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to fund water infrastructure programs with a particular focus on safe drinking water. The policy renews funding for existing programs while authorizing two new EPA grant programs and a few other spending priorities. Water Finance &amp; Management explains exactly what is covered under the new bill. Investors raising debt funds for U.S. infrastructure The private sector has a track record of stepping in to fill gaps in federal infrastructure funding, and this year is no different. Bloomberg reports a growing number of private investors are raising debt funds for U.S. infrastructure initiatives. A more recent Bloomberg Q&amp;A discusses possible alternatives to the nation&rsquo;s current approach to infrastructure. Calling for infrastructure leadership in the U.S. Criticism for a lack of follow-through on infrastructure funding has been a major talking point throughout several administrations, and many of the industry&rsquo;s leading figures stress that infrastructure should be a bipartisan issue. An interview in Icons of Infrastructure explores this idea and emphasizes the urgent need for infrastructure leadership in the United States. Discussing the options in infrastructure policy U.S. infrastructure projects are notoriously underfunded, and the increase in natural disasters in recent years has only put more pressure on an already stressed, aging system. A podcast from the University of Pennsylvania (with a transcript below) proposes four policy changes that could help revitalize the America&rsquo;s infrastructure.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/underground-infrastructure-what-s-coming-down-the-pipe/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/underground-infrastructure-what-s-coming-down-the-pipe/Thu, 27 September 2018 09:23:00 Combined sewer overflows: The case for wastewater infrastructure upgradesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/combined-sewer-overflows-the-case-for-wastewater-infrastructure-upgrades/You don&rsquo;t have to search long to find a recent example of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in the news. That&rsquo;s particularly true in the United States, where outdated water infrastructure and unpredictable weather have led to more than the average number of overflow and flooding events. In Wisconsin, for example, a series of intense storms led the city of Milwaukee to divert wastewater to local waterways and Lake Michigan &mdash; twice in the span of six days. The city has reported a total of four CSOs this year, a number that has not been matched since 2010. According to the EPA&rsquo;s most recent data, states reported 1,482 untreated combined sewer overflows (CSOs) in the Great Lakes Basin in 2014. That led to around 22 billion gallons of untreated combined sewage overflowing into the Great Lakes that year. After more than 9,000 sewage discharge violations of the Clean Water Act, the City of Houston is facing potential legal action from an environmental group . The city issued a statement in response, pointing to grease blockages as a major cause of sanitary sewer overflows, made worse by a growing population and major flooding. To better handle these factors, the city announced it is negotiating with the EPA to upgrade its extensive aging sewer system. Water surges create cracks in underground pipes. The resulting leaks erode the soil, damage roads and infrastructure and create dangerous sinkholes. When systems are nearing capacity, combined sewer overflows push wastewater into local streams, lakes and even groundwater. Contaminated water poses a health risk to surrounding communities and the environment, making water undrinkable and spoiling wildlife habitats. While communities throughout the United States have an urgent need to upgrade their wastewater and sewer infrastructure, funding issues are a constant roadblock. However, failing to make critical upgrades risks greater expenses down the line &mdash; as excess water passes through wastewater treatment plants, municipalities are forced to bear the cost. Even projects that have been implemented over the past few years to install enormous combined sewer holding tanks, which have cost many millions of dollars to construct, still require cities to pay the expense of pumping and treating all of that water. The time has come to update aging infrastructure by investing in high-quality watertight systems to fully protect our nation&rsquo;s waterways, communities and the environment. That means ensuring cities and engineers are requiring the correct rubber gaskets and joint connectors to handle our new water reality, as well as watertight manhole frames and covers to prevent leaks and overflows. Municipalities should look at a broad spectrum of options for adopting green infrastructure to reduce run-off and implement more sustainable solutions. Combined sewer overflows can be damaging and expensive, especially to our precious water resources, but they are also entirely preventable. Get in touch to find the right watertight systems for your next infrastructure project.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/combined-sewer-overflows-the-case-for-wastewater-infrastructure-upgrades/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/combined-sewer-overflows-the-case-for-wastewater-infrastructure-upgrades/Thu, 30 August 2018 10:23:00 Building Bridges to Handle the Heat: On the Road with Randy ReimerAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/building-bridges-to-handle-the-heat-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/Welcome to On the Road with Randy Reimer, a Q&amp;A series featuring Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Director of Sales. Each month we&rsquo;ll chat with Randy about current infrastructure news and how it affects our customers in the industry. When Chicago&rsquo;s DuSable Bridge overheated in early July , it had to be closed down and sprayed with cold water before it could be reopened for boats and two levels of road traffic. The double-decker steel bridge was apparently exposed to surface temperatures above 100&deg;F that week, causing the bridge&rsquo;s expansion joints to swell until they could no longer move. At 98 years old, the bridge was evidently built for a different climate than the one Chicago experienced this summer. Issues like these are becoming increasingly common as bridges and other areas of infrastructure start to fail under more intense weather conditions brought on by climate change. That&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s on Randy Reimer&rsquo;s mind this month. We caught up with him to ask about bridges, expansion joints and steps builders can take to prepare bridges for extreme temperatures. Hamilton Kent: What kinds of structural problems can you expect when bridges expand in hot weather? Randy Reimer: Most of the severe problems around bridge expansion occur in bridges that require movement. Lift bridges are one example of that. If high temperatures cause the metal to expand more than what was anticipated during the design phase, it can expand to the point where interference keeps the bridge from functioning properly &mdash; like what happened in Chicago on the DuSable Bridge. Even for stationary bridges or decks, if expansion occurs beyond the original allowances, the structures can experience tremendous forces over time and this can lead to premature failure. HK: How do expansion joints alleviate the structural strain of thermal expansion? RR: Expansion joints are built into the design of a bridge to allow for movement, contraction in colder periods, and expansion in warmer periods. The intention is to let the bridge decking expand or contract as needed without sacrificing structural integrity. At their most complex, expansion joints consist of a number of different components: beams, sliding bearings, sliding springs, support boxes, anchors, and joint seals or membranes. All of these components are fitted into a structural box that tie the two decks together. One feature of an expansion joint is the membrane or joint seal, which ensures nothing can fall through the gap between decks. As an example, on a double-decker bridge, the seals or membranes keep debris from falling through the upper gap and injuring pedestrians or cyclists on the lower level. The seals also serve to keep debris from entering the expansion joint itself, which ultimately could lead to a failure of the moving or sliding components in the joint. If the expansion device seizes in place, a failure could be catastrophic. That&rsquo;s why the membrane or seal needs to perform well, last long and, of course, allow for movement. HK: Should your expansion joints have certain attributes to properly absorb the impact of thermal expansion? RR: Yes, but all of these attributes would be considered by the design engineer. The engineer considers climate, load, span and volume of traffic, along with local weather conditions, during the design phase. Climate change is causing us to rethink all of our tolerances. Extreme temperature swings and weather events, including high and low temperatures, seem to be more frequent than in years past. As a result, the criteria for expansion joints need to be adjusted as well. More importantly, the criteria need to be considered during the initial design phase. HK: Is there anything you need to watch out for when installing bridge expansion joints? RR: Installation is almost always carried out by trained and certified bridge contractors. When it comes to the resilient part of the design &mdash; the membranes or joint seals &mdash; it&rsquo;s important that the manufacturer use rubber materials that meet the specification. They must be able to withstand the oils or hydrocarbons, UV, and ozone in the environment. As is often the case, the most vulnerable of all parts is the rubber seal &mdash; it needs to fit perfectly and survive everything the elements throw at it. HK: What kind of maintenance is needed? RR: Preventative maintenance must be carried out as per the engineer or manufacturer&rsquo;s requirements. If PMs are not done, eventually the expansion joint can fail, which can lead to many types of problems. Also, the prospect of replacing an expansion joint is not easy or simple. Often the expansion joint is cast into a concrete bridge deck but in cases where it is not, it is still a complex connection. A premature failure can often lead to more extensive repair work. HK: What are the roadblocks involved in bridge repairs? Why do governments let it fall by the wayside? RR: This is a good question. Why is preventative maintenance sacrificed in any application? Often it comes down to dollars and a lack of public awareness. Out of sight and out of mind, the general public has an expectation that bridges, like other large infrastructure, are built to last. When budgets are cut, it&rsquo;s easy to say, &ldquo;Let&rsquo;s roll back the PM schedule.&rdquo; Invariably, reduced maintenance shortens life expectancy. It really boils down to a &ldquo;Pay me now or pay me more later&rdquo; scenario. HK: What are the stakes if owners take too long or fail to address problems with their bridges? RR: Obviously, the stakes are very high. Not only from the standpoint of safety, but also in terms of costs associated with delays due to repair work. Most municipalities use industry-adopted formulae to determine the type of maintenance program chosen related to the cost of the impact. These decisions are typically made based on a life cycle cost benefit (LCCB) analysis of bridges. HK: Do you think changing weather patterns are having a different effect on bridge infrastructure today compared to many decades ago? RR: There is no question that climate change is hastening the demise of many road bridges globally. According to the U.S. EPA website , &ldquo;With the average US bridge now over 40 years old, more than 250 million vehicles cross deficient bridges every day.&rdquo; Of course, there are other major concerns for bridges when it comes to climate change &mdash; such as scouring from high water levels brought about by heavy rains &mdash; but expansion joints are still a big part of the issue, as mentioned earlier with the DuSable Bridge. Severe climate conditions age all infrastructure in a more aggressive way than what designers allowed for in their original plans. HK: How can municipalities or bridge owners be proactive in the face of potential weather issues? How can they curb the need for emergency repairs? RR: The most important things owners can do are to have all of their bridge evaluations up to date, keep up with their preventative maintenance schedule, and be prepared to shut down traffic over bridges that become so deficient they are dangerous to utilize.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/building-bridges-to-handle-the-heat-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/building-bridges-to-handle-the-heat-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/Thu, 19 July 2018 11:23:00 Why we need to increase infrastructure spending: 3 recent examplesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/why-we-need-to-increase-infrastructure-spending-3-recent-examples/It&rsquo;s no secret that we&rsquo;re a big proponent of increased infrastructure funding &mdash; whether it&rsquo;s roads, highways, bridges, or water and sanitary systems. You only have to look at recent reports from cities and towns all over North America to understand why. News stories like these crop up almost every day, so we&rsquo;ve rounded up some recent examples to highlight the need for increased infrastructure funding from federal, state and municipal governments. The state of Kansas received an overall &ldquo;C&rdquo; grade on its infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), with a C-minus specifically for roads (for the record, the US&rsquo;s overall grade for roads is a &ldquo;D&rdquo;). Although the state&rsquo;s grade went up slightly since last year, it still has a backlog of projects expected to cost millions of dollars &mdash; a matter complicated further by recent budget cuts. When states like Kansas fail to preserve and update their road and highway infrastructure, it causes safety issues for drivers as well as many short- and long-term economic impacts. As one source explains in the Hays Post story, failure to maintain and preserve road infrastructure ultimately leads to more money spent fixing and replacing those roads. The same can be said for water and wastewater infrastructure. In an effort to pay off debt it racked up from previous projects, the city of Calgary, AB has approved a plan that could hike up utility rates for its residents. While new regulatory requirements add to the burden, debts like these often stem from poorly-managed maintenance regimens and dodgy politics. Major infrastructure overhauls require massive investments, but the initial cost is usually far less than the costs incurred by doing piecemeal maintenance and emergency repairs. Policymakers need to dig deep to save themselves &mdash; and taxpayers &mdash; more expenses and complications down the line. Otherwise you get stories like these: a major pizza chain starts fixing roads across the US because, well, who else is going to do it? Domino&rsquo;s is apparently tired of having its pizzas jostled by potholes, so the chain is investing its own money into paving roads and patching potholes in cities like Bartonville, TX and Milford, DE. Although we can&rsquo;t say this is a bad use of someone&rsquo;s pizza money, we would certainly like to see government agencies involved in these types of projects, either through a public-private partnership or by managing and funding the work themselves.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/why-we-need-to-increase-infrastructure-spending-3-recent-examples/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/why-we-need-to-increase-infrastructure-spending-3-recent-examples/Thu, 28 June 2018 13:38:11 Video: Major flood mitigationAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/video-major-flood-mitigation/In an area of town at high risk for flooding, Globeville has initiated one of the biggest infrastructure developments in the city&rsquo;s history. As one of four projects under Globeville&rsquo;s $300 million Platte to Park Hill plan, the Globeville Landing Outfall Project (GLO) aims to redirect stormwater and mitigate flooding in the city. To make the plan a reality, engineers installed a 12x15 box culvert with joints fitted with Tylox&reg; SuperSeal&trade; gaskets by Hamilton Kent. The gaskets come pre-installed and pre-lubricated with a self-centering design, greatly simplifying installation and eliminating extra work in the field. As a result of the project, improved drainage will complement the efforts of an I-70 expansion project designed to prevent flooding on the interstate. The new culvert will direct stormwater to the South Platte river, ending in an open channel greenway that may also improve water quality. The system has the potential to span from Globeville all the way down to areas near Alameda and Quebec. The culvert will have water flowing through it by the summer of 2018, and the GLO project is expected to be completed sometime in 2019. To get the full scoop, watch the video from CBS4 in Denver . (Credit CBS)http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/video-major-flood-mitigation/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/video-major-flood-mitigation/Thu, 17 May 2018 13:18:13 April Q&A: On the Road with Randy ReimerAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/april-qa-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/Welcome to On the Road with Randy Reimer, a Q&amp;A series featuring Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Director of Sales. Each month we&rsquo;ll chat with Randy about current news in underground infrastructure and how it affects our customers in the industry. From big cities to small communities, spring thaw brings a deluge of infrastructure issues to municipalities all over North America. Take the city of Calgary , for example, and its recent efforts to clear up clogged storm catch basins, or this New York county&rsquo;s influx of flood relief funds to support impacted communities and prevent future problems. This month, we sat down with Randy Reimer to discuss the effects of springtime thaw and share some tips and tricks to help municipalities curb storm drainage and related infrastructure issues. Hamilton Kent: From a storm drainage perspective, what sort of problems can you expect when ice and snow start to melt in springtime? Randy Reimer: They really cover the gamut from small problems to big problems. The first thing that people will likely see is catch basins and storm basins that don't drain properly. Oftentimes there are obstructions that fall into the basins over the course of the winter and fall, and that reduces capacity. It&rsquo;s also quite common to see flooding. Drainage creeks or waterways will run at their highest capacity, but storm water is always going to find its way to the lowest point in the system. It then can cause a tremendous amount of damage when it builds up too quickly, so you'll see erosion of river beds, roadways, or culvert areas. It also can cause instability in road bedding, which leads to transportation problems. HK: What about the big problems? RR: The whole sanitary system can be overloaded by all this excess storm water, and that can turn into big problems. The water can back up into people's homes, or into the roadway, which can create environmental issues. It affects treatment plant capacity, which can be exceeded. It can even lead to discharges of wastewater. I'll point to an example of what occurred in Montreal in 2015. There were a lot of heavy rains that occurred in the fall, and the city of Montreal had to release eight billion gallons of untreated wastewater into the St. Lawrence River, and there was a big hullabaloo. Another similar problem is that when waterways flood, the water can rise above sanitary collection structures and literally pour into the system, and that's going to lead to a problem in your wastewater treatment plant downstream. Almost every municipality has a problem like that. HK: What kind of problems does this cause for the general public compared to the municipalities? RR: The public are only going to see the big issues. They see storm water charges on their utility bills, but generally, they're only going to really notice the issue when they're inconvenienced &mdash; so if their basement floods or they see traffic disruptions, those kinds of things. The municipal maintenance workers are the ones who really see the impact. They're the ones who have to clean it up, which, of course, means cost. Cost is ultimately the most significant impact of this problem because crews are running flat out to try to resolve these issues, limit the damage, and also prepare for it. HK: Do you hear a lot of storm drainage conversations around this time of year? RR: It's not really a seasonal issue, but we see it in the form of spec changes. Our customers are mostly impacted because they see specifications on projects are getting tighter and more stringent, so municipalities are trying to make the entire storm and sanitary system more watertight. It's especially true for regions that have the bulk of their storm water issues concentrated in smaller periods of time, like in drier areas that occasionally have heavy rains &mdash; such as California or Utah &mdash; or in places like Ontario or Quebec, where precipitation gets locked up in the form of ice and snow, and then it can be released in a very short period of time during a quick thaw in the spring. HK: How do municipalities react to storm drainage problems? RR: They're reacting to it by requiring more watertight systems. I would say there's a perception out in the market, especially where gaskets are not specified, that by requiring water systems to be more watertight, they think it's going to add a significant amount of cost to their project. The reality is that adding gaskets &mdash; or making the system watertight through connections, rubber connections and gaskets &mdash; is probably only going to add two to three percent in terms of the total cost. Requiring the water system to be watertight is a pretty strong reaction to these kinds of issues. We&rsquo;re also seeing a lot more retention and detention projects, both in the private development market and in the public domain. They're trying to contain storm water that would otherwise be rapidly released into the environment, and then release it slowly over a period of time. HK: What can municipalities do to be proactive about the issue? RR: It all starts with research, and we're seeing more of it all the time. When you talk to a municipality, you might want to ask the question, "What are you doing to study your storm water?" Municipalities need to fund storm water studies to understand exactly what needs to be done, and where it needs to be done, and what's the most cost-effective solution for them. It all starts with research. From there, it's going to tell them where they need to spend their money and what they need to do, whether it's retention or permeable pavement. HK: What should you look for in a watertight system? RR: I would say resiliency. Resiliency is the word that's being used now by municipalities when they talk about their systems in areas that have the potential for flooding or quick thaws, with a lot of storm water runoff at any given point in time. Cities want to think of their infrastructure, including their storm water infrastructure, as resilient and able to survive certain kinds of events. HK: What kind of advice would you give your customers about storm drainage issues? RR: Well, if they're not already seeing it, they need to be prepared for it. Typically, in the past, drainage culverts and storm culverts were not gasketed in many markets &mdash; or maybe they were gasketed only with butyl sealant, which, quite frankly, is an inferior product to a proper rubber gasket. Municipalities are dealing with real problems in how they control their storm water. My advice to customers would be: embrace these questions and these requirements, because ultimately, you&rsquo;ll really be able to offer better solutions and more assistance to your customers.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/april-qa-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/april-qa-on-the-road-with-randy-reimer/Thu, 12 April 2018 13:18:13 On the Road with Randy Reimer: A Q&A SeriesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/on-the-road-with-randy-reimer-a-qa-series/Welcome to On the Road with Randy Reimer, a Q&amp;A series featuring Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Director of Sales. Each month we&rsquo;ll chat with Randy about current news in underground infrastructure and how it affects our customers in the industry. U.S. President Donald Trump recently released a proposal to invest federal funds and breathe new life into American infrastructure projects. While the plan has many infrastructure industry players feeling hopeful for the future, it has also raised some eyebrows about the $1.5 trillion funding goal &mdash; and the actual $200 billion pledged for federal investment. Is there a silver lining to the cloud of concern surrounding Trump&rsquo;s infrastructure proposal? Randy Reimer, Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Director of Sales, weighs in with his thoughts. Hamilton Kent: What do you think about the infrastructure funding proposal overall? Randy Reimer: It all sounds good, but I don't think there's ever been an infrastructure bill that's been funded like this in the past. Trump's infrastructure plan mainly relies on state and local government for funding. If you add it all up, it's only $200 billion in federal funding over 10 years. The jury's out on whether that can be successful or not. The good news is that they're talking about infrastructure &mdash; I think there's a clear understanding throughout the US that infrastructure is critical and needs to be addressed quickly. The sticking point is, where's the money going to come from? HK: So you think there should be more spend allocated for infrastructure projects? RR: The needs are there. Every year since as far back as I can remember, American infrastructure has been receiving a very poor grade in terms of its current state of repair and the maintenance that's required to keep everything going. There simply hasn't been enough money spent over the course of the last decade. The last major infrastructure bill that was above and beyond regular spending was the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (2009). Even that was really just a small amount of money that focused on shovel-ready projects. Those of us who are in the construction and engineering fields recall that at the end of the day, most of those dollars didn't really deal with the big issues &mdash; they didn&rsquo;t deal with the long-term need. HK: Do your customers have any concerns? RR: There are concerns that money gets spent unwisely &mdash; that when money is released for spending, the correct decisions are not always made. Spending infrastructure money is often more of a political decision, and it's about getting fast results. When you're talking about infrastructure decisions around fast results, they're often in conflict with long-term decisions for handling real, serious infrastructure problems. HK: In your opinion, what are the most critical areas of infrastructure that need to be improved? RR: I think, first of all, bridges. When you read reports on the state of the nation's bridges, a number of them are significantly past their life expectancy. As for roads and highways, money definitely needs to be invested here. We haven't been keeping up with what's really necessary to maintain our roads and highways. Another important area of infrastructure investment is separating combined sewers. In the past money has been guaranteed by the federal government, so there should be municipal money there, but municipal and state money is also supported by federal spending. I think those are three really key areas: bridges, roads, and water and sanitary infrastructure spending. HK: Is there anything your customers can do to influence a change? RR: One of the things that our customers are being encouraged to do right now is to present their concerns regarding infrastructure. There's been a lot of encouragement lately for the various industry associations to lobby and petition their state and federal representatives, and those who sit on the various committees, to make their concerns known at that level so that they have input into the process. HK: Do you think the conversation around infrastructure is at a peak right now, or is there more to be said? RR: I think there's a lot more to be said. There's a lot of conversation that needs to be held around financing and funding, for sure. There are a lot of unanswered questions around what an infrastructure bill would look like. But the conversation is starting to take place, which is really good. I think from a political standpoint, infrastructure is something that both parties can agree on. For those of us who are in the business, when it comes to underground water conveyance, we're really optimistic that things can move forward and that some real, meaningful work can be done. HK: Do you have any advice for your customers or players in the industry, to help them better take advantage of the infrastructure money that&rsquo;s being spent? RR: It's important for manufacturers that would be participating in any infrastructure investment to continue to invest in their own business. I think that's really critical. One of the big problems that exists in our business today is a shortage of labor. It's hard to find people willing to do the physical and detailed work that is required in our industry, so a lot of companies are moving towards automation. Now more than ever, to be properly positioned to take advantage of the infrastructure money that's going to be spent over the coming 5 to 10 years, companies need to be ready for it. That means investing in new equipment, modern technology, and automation. HK: Any thoughts on what we can expect going forward? RR: The bottom line is this is an exciting time in our business. I remember when I first came to this industry in 2006 and the recession hit. In 2008, housing starts fell off a cliff. I remember being in a meeting and listening to the president of one of our associations talk about how long it was going to take to recover from the last recession and from the significant drop in housing starts. He told us it wouldn't be until 2017-2018 that we would return to those kinds of levels. I remember thinking at the time, "How are we going to survive? This is devastating for the business. By the way, why did I get into the business before this happened?" It turns out that prediction is ringing true, and we are now starting to see volumes that are close to those of 2006 and 2007. There's a lot of optimism out there right now. People are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and the smart companies are preparing themselves for more growth as we move forward.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/on-the-road-with-randy-reimer-a-qa-series/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/on-the-road-with-randy-reimer-a-qa-series/Thu, 01 March 2018 14:25:00 Mike Rossi joins HK Technical departmentAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/mike-rossi-joins-hk-technical-department/Hamilton Kent is pleased to announce that&nbsp;Mike Rossi joined the Hamilton Kent engineering team as a Product Manager on January 2nd.He will be responsible for customer technical support, for research and evaluation of new product designs and for client quote submittal. Mike has 18 years of experience in plastic product development. He has a degree in Chemical Engineering from McMaster University.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/mike-rossi-joins-hk-technical-department/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/mike-rossi-joins-hk-technical-department/Fri, 05 January 2018 14:25:00 Marcus Barnett joins HK Sales teamAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/marcus-barnett-joins-hk-sales-team/Hamilton Kent is pleased to announce that Marcus Barnett joined the Hamilton Kent sales team as a Territory Manager on January 2 nd and is now responsible for the southeastern region of the US. Marcus will provide customers his technical and sales support while maintaining and growing HK&rsquo;s business in the concrete pipe and precast concrete industries. Marcus has 35 years of experience in the prestressed, precast and concrete pipe industries, including the last 17 years with Sherman-Dixie Concrete and Forterra Pipe &amp; Precast. His extensive background in production management, quality control and quality assurance will be an asset to both Hamilton Kent and his customers. Marcus is a National Precast Concrete Association Master Precaster, holds certifications with several state DOT's and is an active participant on several ASTM committees and sub-committees including C13 for Concrete Pipe and C27 for Precast Concrete Products.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/marcus-barnett-joins-hk-sales-team/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2018/marcus-barnett-joins-hk-sales-team/Wed, 03 January 2018 17:25:00 9 ways to prepare a safe excavation siteAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/9-ways-to-prepare-a-safe-excavation-site/A lot can go wrong if you&rsquo;re not implementing the correct safety procedures at a job site&mdash;from fingers being pinched between concrete pipes, to cave-ins in the trenches. Even with proper planning, the risks are there. So how do your prepare your personnel to keep everyone as safe as possible? Read the steps below before starting your excavation: 1. Always use the right Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) PPE will change depending on the level of risk at a job. This will include varying levels of eye, head and foot protection. It&rsquo;s up to the employer to not only provide proper PPE, but to also train workers how to properly use, care, and maintain them. Training should include: when and what PPE is necessary, what the PPE's limitations are, and how to care for PPE. 2. Train, train and train some more Training is essential for the construction industry. Contractors should not only personally train personnel working in the trenches, but also rely on their suppliers to train workers on how to properly install the products they are supplying. Most concrete pipe and structure suppliers are able to provide someone to demonstrate how to properly install pipes, manholes or gaskets. There are also a number of Occupational Health and Safety Association (OSHA) courses that job site supervisors, and workers, are required to take before showing up to the job site. You can find them here . 3. Give your site a hazard assessment&nbsp; Along with training, before workers arrive at a job site, a hazard assessment of the workplace should be performed. This allows employers to have more control over physical and health hazards on the job site. Hazards could include rain, ice, contaminated soils, sewage effluent, overhead powerlines and underground utilities. 4. Display clear project specific emergency procedures Should an emergency happen while excavating or installing pipes or precast structures, there should be an emergency plan implemented and clearly displayed for all workers on site. This should include what to do in both occupational medical emergencies (heat stroke, exposure to pollutants, amputations, trench cave-ins etc.), and non-occupational medical emergencies (heart attacks, or other pre-existing conditions). With conspicuously displayed emergency procedures, the risks will be greatly reduced and the response from your workers in the event of an emergency could potentially save lives. 5. Personnel should know about enter and exit points In the event of an emergency, it&rsquo;s extremely important to have clearly marked enter and exit points in your trench. Workers should know how to properly enter and exit an excavation, and exits should be properly supported by trench walls so as to not cause a cave-in. Proper access points include ladders, steps or ramps. 6. Assess soil structural requirements and environmental hazards A number of factors come into play when assessing the structural requirements of your trench walls. These include the characteristics and water content of the soil, depth and width of your excavation, weather conditions, and vibration from construction equipment or traffic. With all of these things in mind, the appropriate sloping, shoring or shielding requirements should be measured and approved by an engineer. If a support system is required, it should be engineered and determined, along with what equipment will be needed, before the start of an excavation. With all of these precautions in place, you will be able to prevent excavation walls from collapsing. 7. Be careful of equipment hazards, debris and dirt After your trench walls are properly supported, precautions also need to be taken throughout the duration of your project to keep workers safe. This means keeping the trench free of water, and reassessing after rain, snow, or ice melts to ensure there is no change in the soil. Equipment, debris and excavated soil should stay more than three feet (one meter) away from the edge of the trench. This includes keeping moving vehicles away from the walls of the excavation. With the unloading of pipes and concrete structures, this should be done on a level site, ensuring that workers are out of the path of the product. And handling of these concrete products must be done carefully to prevent injury to personnel who could inadvertently find their way in the path of your equipment. If the product is suspended by a cable, equipment operators and workers on the ground need to be cautious of loads that could swing during movement. 8. Keep traffic in trench low, but not too low A worker should never enter into a trench unless there is another worker present outside of the trench. If any emergencies happen, this ensures that there will be someone present who can respond based on the project-specific emergency procedures. At the same time, traffic should stay low in the trench. Fewer people means fewer trips or falls in the narrow workspace between the pipe and the trench walls. For box culvert installations, there should be 3 to 4 workers in the trench: 1 to 2 workers inside the culvert to watch for alignment and a couple outside the culvert to direct it into place. Pipe installations need even fewer: 1 worker at the back of the pipe for alignment, and 1 worker at the front to direct the installation equipment operator. 9. Limit how much trench is open at a time Limit the amount of trench open at any given time to 50 feet (15 metres), and try to close the trench as quickly as possible to keep both workers and equipment from falling in. This means cast-in-place concrete structures will inevitably be less safe than any type of prefabricated structure (like precast concrete) because it takes time to setup formwork, pour concrete and allow for proper curing. Using rubber gaskets and connectors will also shorten the amount of time the trench is open due to fast installation, and no time needed to allow for mortar connections to cure. Keep workers and the public safer from injury on site on your next project. For more information on site-safe products, please feel free to talk to one of our reps here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/9-ways-to-prepare-a-safe-excavation-site/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/9-ways-to-prepare-a-safe-excavation-site/Fri, 22 December 2017 11:27:14 Get your box culverts ready for the job siteAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/get-your-box-culverts-ready-for-the-job-site/Precast concrete box culverts are essentially the Lego of the construction world. You have a set number of pieces, and if they&rsquo;re gasketed on arrival, there is no extra work except simply putting them together. They slide into place one-by-one and you&rsquo;re good to go. But because there is so little work required with precast on the job site, there are a few things that need to be taken care of before they even arrive. Check out our guide on box culvert planning, regulations, and testing methods in the blog below. Why choose a box culvert? On the job site, precast box culverts with pre-lubricated gaskets will save time. There is no need to install butyl, or apply lubricant in the field, and installation just means lowering a box into position and homing the joint carefully and evenly. Gaskets have lubricant sealed within the rolling tube, making it impervious to mud, dirt and debris, and they are made from a UV resistant rubber material for resistance to degradation due to exposure to UV and ozone for long periods. Another advantage of using precast gasketed box culverts is scheduling and mapping your project with your precast supplier so everything arrives on time and where needed on the job site. If a line of culverts requires a bend, precasters are capable of creating skews and turns to keep your joint integrity high. This will prevent contractors from having to leave one side of the joint open, which increases the likelihood of a leak if the gap is more than &frac12;&rdquo; on any side. Pressure ratings Under ASTM C1677: Standard Specification for joints for concrete box, using rubber gaskets , ASTM international recommends that box culverts handle water pressures up to 5 psi. When manufactured with single offset joints, fitted with the proper gasket and tested properly, your box culverts should easily handle this much pressure. If the culverts are exposed to a great deal of internal pressure or external vibration, some method of locking box sections together may be needed. This can be accomplished using cables run through each box to connect the culverts and post-tensioning, or with bolts placed in pre-formed pockets to lock the sections together. Testing methods ASTM recommends external joint tests specified under C1677 as well as ASTM C1619: Standard specification for elastrometric seals for joining concrete structures. These standards outline proof of design tests to complete before sending to a job site. Joints can also be field tested using testing devices that isolate joints and test by vacuum or hydrostatic pressure. Such devices are manufactured by Cherne and Plug-It Products . External joint test procedures External tests create a pressurized pocket between the primary joint gasket and a secondary gasket which seals the outer portion of the joint between the face of the bell and end of the spigot. Once the gaskets are in place on the spigot, two access holes are drilled into the wall of the bell. The exhaust port should be located at the highest vertical point on the box culvert. The inlet port placement is optional, however more specific instructions on where to place the inlet port if a pressure gauge is to be connected can be found here . These holes must align with the space that will be created between the two gaskets once the box sections are completely homed. Epoxy should then be used to install and solidly anchor a galvanized steel nipple into each hole. Once the box sections are homed together properly, it&rsquo;s necessary to utilize a restraining method to hold the sections together. Without proper restraints, the potential is both there for false, negative test results, as well as failure of the joint because the sections pushed apart and opened the joint. The space within the joint between the gaskets is filled with water and hydrostatic pressure is built up within the joint to the desired PSI level. We have a complete, and detailed breakdown of external joint tests here &nbsp;as well as a video showing how they work here .&nbsp; For consultation on how to perform your own tests on your box culverts, and why they&rsquo;re necessary, feel free to contact a Hamilton Kent rep here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/get-your-box-culverts-ready-for-the-job-site/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/get-your-box-culverts-ready-for-the-job-site/Tue, 31 October 2017 11:27:14 Hurricanes Harvey and Irma highlight need for regulating developmentsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-highlight-need-for-regulating-developments/There&rsquo;s a lingering image of the American Frontier where a calm breeze blows through endless prairies of tall grass, and &ldquo;the skies are not cloudy all day.&rdquo; As the prairies become more populated, they get paved over to make way for roads and westward expansion. The tall grass that once ran 14 feet deep is replaced with impermeable asphalt, and the calm quiet is replaced with bustling cities. On days where the blue skies are replaced with rain, the water has nowhere to go but over the impenetrable surfaces, and towards the ocean&mdash;no matter what it takes to get there. In regular rain events, this progress doesn&rsquo;t seem so bad. But during events like Tropical Storm Harvey, and Hurricane Irma, the results of unregulated development are much more dire. The case with Harvey in Houston Houston&rsquo;s Katy Prairie, reached by the Katy Freeway, is now 25 percent of the 600,000 acres of greenery it once was, estimates the Katy Prairie Conservancy . On either side of the freeway are the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs built after World War II to prevent floods in the quickly developing Harris County. Today, houses have been built right up to the edge of the reservoirs. Some existing in the reservoirs&rsquo; 500-year floodplain. The problem with this is that there have now been three major storms in the past three years, pushing waters into the 500-year floodplain and into the homes of Houston&rsquo;s residents: the Memorial Day Flood of 2015, the Tax Day Flood of 2016, and now Tropical Storm Harvey in 2017. In order to prevent Houston&rsquo;s dam from breaching, which would cause an estimated $60 billion in damage to more than 1 million residences, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has to make some tough decisions when it comes to whether to release water from the reservoirs during major rain events. After Harvey, the Corps had to release water into a neighboring development to the Addick&rsquo;s reservoir. The Corps doesn&rsquo;t have control over where housing developments are built.&nbsp; In 2001 only 28 percent of the land in Addicks reservoir was developed. In 2010 this number had jumped to 41 percent. According to this report , since 1990, the reservoirs have had nine out of 10 of the largest storms fill them completely in their entire existence. Six of these have taken place after 2000.&nbsp; Richard Long from USACE stated in this report &nbsp;that this is directly correlated to new growth and development, exacerbated by new drainage systems sending more water to the reservoirs. Not only is growth a problem, but the American Society of Civil Engineers has been releasing report cards for years about how America&rsquo;s infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life, this year giving the country a D+ grade overall. &nbsp;The failing infrastructure not only needs updating, but it has to keep up with growing communities country-wide. Preparation for Hurricane Irma In preparation of Hurricane Irma, engineers near Fort Myers, Fla. released water from Lake Okeechobee to keep the dike safe and towns from flooding. But despite this, Florida has been deferring maintenance on their infrastructure as South Florida&rsquo;s population has increased, meaning a storm surge could easily overwhelm the system, as exemplified by extensive flooding post-Irma. Why you should regulate development We&rsquo;ve spoken before about how green infrastructure can help your grey infrastructure &nbsp;in absorbing stormwater and runoff, and this example is no different. Houston isn&rsquo;t exclusive in building residential and commercial developments on floodplains. Some cities are starting to move residential homes away from floodplains in order to avoid catastrophe. What these natural disasters are really shedding light on, however, is how unregulated development without proper upkeep of stormwater infrastructure can affect our municipalities for years to come. Proper planning and regulation will not only help avoid costly property damage, but also helps keep people safe during big storms. If you&rsquo;re in a position to do so, advocate with your local politicians to invest in infrastructure and to properly implement a balance of green infrastructure along with grey infrastructure developments. You can do this by writing to your area&rsquo;s elected officials to remind them how important stormwater infrastructure is to changing and growing municipalities.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-highlight-need-for-regulating-developments/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hurricanes-harvey-and-irma-highlight-need-for-regulating-developments/Sat, 30 September 2017 11:27:14 What too much water can do to your collection systemsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/what-too-much-water-can-do-to-your-collection-systems/In areas with a high water table, or for cities more prone to flooding, your underground infrastructure can become inundated with groundwater and stormwater. And despite stormwater systems being built for this type of collection, there are a number of things that can go wrong for both types of collection systems underground&mdash;and above ground&mdash;that can lead to contamination or degraded infrastructure. Here are a few problems that could arise, and how to deal with them. Inflow and Infiltration When flooding or ponding occurs over sanitary manholes, and if there are any openings or cracks in your manhole covers, it will inevitably cause inflow into that system. &nbsp;This is okay if the inflow is into your stormwater system, which was built to collect surface water; but it&rsquo;s bad news for your sanitary system. Studies have shown that approximately 50 percent of extraneous water has likely found its way into your sanitary collection system through leaks in manhole covers. As for underground, if collection system pipes are below the water table or if the ground around pipes becomes oversaturated with surface water that has seeped into the ground after a heavy storm, then those pipe systems will be subjected to external water pressure. Leaks can occur through cracks in pipes, because of failed pipe joints, or from insufficient sealing capacity at the pipe-to-structure connections. Underground leaks can lead to soil erosion, and therefore soil entering the pipes, further limiting flow and putting municipalities at risk of pavement damage and worse&mdash; sink holes. &nbsp; Eventually, with all of this extra water entering sanitary collection systems, wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) will be treating excess water at a cost to municipalities. And in larger storm events, a WWTP can reach overcapacity and have to release untreated or partially treated wastewater into waterways. &nbsp;If the plants don&rsquo;t release these surges into waterways, they will end up in homes or back up through manhole covers as a sanitary sewer backup. Outflow and Manhole Surcharge Our waterways are a precious resource, which is why it&rsquo;s important to keep them free of contamination. Contamination can take the form of sewage and stormwater leaks through damaged or improperly installed or sealed pipes, as well as manhole surcharges. These leaks pose serious threats to the health of your municipality, and risks to your environment. If your municipality has a combined sewer, these cracks put your system at an increased risk of combined sewer overflows (CSO) should any flood events or 100-year storms occur .&nbsp;If water is leaking in through cracks, the system will reach overcapacity sooner, and ultimately water and sewage combined will have nowhere to go. The solutions Rubber gaskets for joints between pipe sections and rubber connectors for pipe and manhole intersections should be used for all types of water conveyance. They are much more likely to maintain a watertight seal over the lifetime of the pipe system than other solutions. And being flexible by nature, they are able to maintain a seal even if there is movement of the pipe sections or structure due to differential loading or during installation. Above ground, watertight manhole systems such as Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Lifespan&reg; System will keep surface water from leaking in through the top of the manhole. A system like this can to a limited extent also help to prevent surcharging from top of the manhole. With watertight manhole frames &amp; covers, rubber gaskets and joint connectors, water will remain within the system and ground and surface water will remain out&mdash;ultimately protecting your environment, streams, rivers and waterways. Along with grey infrastructure solutions, is green infrastructure. By including more permeable options into cities prone to flooding, water can be re-absorbed into the ground, ultimately reducing run-off. Check out some of our watertight solutions that might suit your municipality here.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/what-too-much-water-can-do-to-your-collection-systems/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/what-too-much-water-can-do-to-your-collection-systems/Wed, 23 August 2017 11:27:14 Lakewood rehabilitation: What we knowAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/lakewood-rehabilitation-what-we-know/I recently paid a visit to the Lakewood community in Nashville. The area comprised of almost 1000 homes completed an overhaul of their underground infrastructure last year &mdash;which our Lifespan&reg; System was a part of. My visit was a bit of a follow up on how our systems were working and how the project went overall, and while flow assessments have still yet to be done, here&rsquo;s what we know so far. No news is good news The approved materials committee at Nashville&rsquo;s Metro Water Services (MWS) used six of The Lifespan&reg; Systems on the quiet Hamblen Avenue . They were a part of a large scale overhaul of the water and stormwater systems, and an installation of what previously was a non-existent stormwater collection system. The entire project was financed at $13.9 million by MWS according to this report . The immediate results of the project were measured to lower operations and maintenance costs between $11 000 and $27 000. These cost reductions were due to the elimination of leaky pipes and the installation of watertight solutions which prevent inflow and infiltration. With less water infiltrating into the system, there is a lower volume of wastewater needing treatment. &ldquo;The main thing for us is that usually no news is generally good news,&rdquo; said Greg Ballard, an engineer with Nashville&rsquo;s Metro Water Services in a phone conversation while speaking about The Lifespan&reg; System&rsquo;s part in the project. &ldquo;The contractor had no issues installing the Lifespan&reg; System, and thought everything was fine&mdash;the product is there doing its job quietly.&rdquo; Why the project was necessary Lakewood has had an ever changing history, but one thing that did not evolve with the community was its water system. The system was built in 1918, around the same time as the ranch-style homes, and it was already dated by the time the city was annexed by Nashville and Davidson County in 1961. The city relied on quick fixes and utilized puddles, pooling water and flooding as its only form of stormwater collections. Lakewood was responsible for its water distribution network between 1960 to 2000. When the city re-amalgamated into Nashville, Metro Water Services took control of the system which was in a state of disrepair. For example, more than 84 percent of sewer backups were being caused by tree roots growing through cracks in sewer pipes. The project plan was to install 7600 feet of valley gutter, 135 catch basins along roadways and 9800 feet of stormwater pipe. Many pipe lines and manholes were not only replaced, but also relocated off of private property to make maintenance less intrusive. What&rsquo;s next for Nashville For now we wait patiently for news and stats from flow assessments on how the project is faring. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re sure that the project has made improvements because the old system was very old, and very leaky&mdash;but of course we replaced the entire piping network in that community,&rdquo; said Ballard. The updated infrastructure will keep extraneous water out of the water system, and prevent it from causing added costs for treating it. For more information on watertight solutions and the importance of maintaining underground infrastructure, take a look at the rest of our blogs here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/lakewood-rehabilitation-what-we-know/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/lakewood-rehabilitation-what-we-know/Thu, 29 June 2017 11:27:14 Tips to strengthen your infrastructure procurement bidAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/tips-to-strengthen-your-infrastructure-procurement-bid/The procurement process is no walk in the park. The mad dash from the time an RFP, RFQ, or Tender is posted, until submission and bidding can mean long days&mdash;and sometimes long nights. It also requires incredible attention to detail, and most importantly, putting your best foot forward in order to win contracts. Every contract has its own unique conditions and requirements, and as such there is no standard set of rules to follow for each one. But there are some strategies you can take to make sure your bids are as strong as they can be before submitting them. We&rsquo;ve spoken to a few procurement experts about things to look out for, so check them out in the list below. But first, let&rsquo;s go over the differences between public and private procurement. Public versus Private procurement The end goal of both private and public procurement is to receive the goods and services needed. However, both industry sectors are responding to different external or internal pressures. Public, or government tenders, have a responsibility to tax payers&mdash;which includes vendors submitting bids&mdash;when going through the bidding process. After posting a public tender, any vendor may submit a bid, meaning there are equal opportunities for vendors. The bids are then read out at a public meeting as transparency is integral to the public procurement process. Generally speaking, because of the responsibilities towards taxpayers, as long as each bid has followed the tender&rsquo;s instructions exactly, they won&rsquo;t be disqualified. After any bids are disqualified, the lowest bid that meets all of the requirements is chosen. Private organizations might be focused more on revenue and good relationships with their vendors, and therefore might not necessarily go with the lowest bid. Upon review of all bids, it gives them the discretion to decide which company will most likely do the best work for them, and not just offer the contract based on the lowest price. There can be considerations that are much more important than price, such as speed of delivery, quality of the final product and service provided during and after the process. Unfortunately, due to the competitive nature of private organizations, many do not disclose their procurement and bid selection process. Private companies may also only choose to invite vendors that they have worked with before, or award contracts without a bidding process at all. They are not dealing with taxpayer money, and therefore have no obligation to provide equal opportunities for vendors. While this process may not seem fair to some, it does allow owners or consulting firms to avoid dealing with contractors or suppliers with whom they have had a negative experience in the past. Things to remember &nbsp;We&rsquo;ve spoken with some experts from the City of Toronto&rsquo;s Purchasing &amp; Materials Management office on things they run into all the time with the bids they look at. As we mentioned above, each tender will be very specific to the project itself, but the list below can apply to any tender, across the board. &ndash; Follow the standard terms and conditions of a tender to ensure that you fulfill all of the requirements before submitting your bid. If you don&rsquo;t have the correct certifications or required experience, your bid will be immediately disqualified. &ndash; This also means ensuring that nothing is left blank in your bid. You won&rsquo;t be allowed to insert any information after your bid has been submitted. This is considered bid repairment which will lead to disqualification. &ndash; If you have questions, ask the buyer. There will be a specific contact for each Tender. For public bids, make sure to only speak to those you&rsquo;ve been told to contact. Too much conversation with project managers or consultations could be seen as trying to influence a bid and therefore lead to disqualification. &ndash; Keep a good reputation. This should go without saying, but following the rules will go a long way in the procurement process. &ndash; Make sure to submit your bid on time. Anything submitted after the time and date won&rsquo;t be considered. Resources There are a number of organizations available to ensure that each procurement process is done fairly, and that each bid put forward is as strong as possible. Check out your local construction associations for help, as well as the nationwide associations below. The Canadian Construction Association Associated General Contractors of America Council of Ontario Construction Associationshttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/tips-to-strengthen-your-infrastructure-procurement-bid/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/tips-to-strengthen-your-infrastructure-procurement-bid/Wed, 31 May 2017 11:27:39 HK Sales Force GrowsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hk-sales-force-grows/We are pleased to announce the addition of Jason Clowater to the Hamilton Kent sales team.&nbsp; Jason has taken the role of Business Development Manager starting April 17 th . Jason graduated from University of New Brunswick with a Bachelor of Business Administration.&nbsp; Since his graduation, he has successfully worked in manufacturing / industrial sales, most recently with J. W. Winco and Victaulic. Jason brings enthusiasm, experience and a will to succeed, so we are very pleased to welcome him to&nbsp;Hamilton Kent!http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hk-sales-force-grows/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/hk-sales-force-grows/Tue, 16 May 2017 11:45:36 America’s engineers give it to us straightAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/america-s-engineers-give-it-to-us-straight/The American Society of Civil Engineers is schooling America on the state of our infrastructure&mdash;but our report card is not one that will earn a proud spot on any doting mother&rsquo;s fridge. The failing state of country-wide infrastructure is outlined in the ASCE&rsquo;s 2017 Infrastructure Report Card . The report card, which has been around since 1998, serves as an education tool and advocacy piece to try to help elected officials, as well as the American citizens, understand the condition of the infrastructure that&rsquo;s so critical to everyone. We spoke with Greg DiLoreto, past president of the ASCE and Chair of the Committee on America&rsquo;s Infrastructure, to find out what the report means for our drinking and wastewater systems. What were the grades? Overall: D+ Drinking Water: D Wastewater: D+ A &ldquo;D&rdquo; grade, according to the report, means that infrastructure is in &ldquo;poor to fair condition, mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life.&rdquo; These grades improved slightly from 2013&rsquo;s D overall, but for longevity in infrastructure, the grade needs to be much higher. &amp;nbsp &ldquo;In the report, we talk about the gap to bring infrastructure to a good condition&mdash;which is a grade of B,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;We believe if we&rsquo;re going to continue our quality of life and try to maintain economic prosperity, a B is what we need.&rdquo; The current state of America&rsquo;s infrastructure There are currently 155,000 drinking water systems and 800,000 miles of public sewage pipelines across the United States. According to the report, there are an estimated 240,000 water main breaks per year in the United States. This equals to about two trillion gallons of treated drinking water wasted, or 14 to 18 percent of each day&rsquo;s treated water. In terms of untreated water, the EPA estimates that there are from 23,000 to 75,000 sanitary sewer overflows in the US each year. The Government Accountability Office says that 99 out of America&rsquo;s 674 midsized cities in the US are shrinking, meaning that fewer rate payers will make it harder to raise funds for infrastructure. As municipalities shrink, there are fewer people to fund infrastructure that needs upgrading in those smaller towns and cities. Over the next 25 years, $150 billion in investments are needed to keep up with the need. Meanwhile, only $45 billion is estimated to be invested based on current spending. Funding by state and local governments for both drinking water and wastewater decreased between 2009 and 2014 by 22 percent&mdash;not aligned with current needs. Funds like state revolving funds are set up to help this, but DiLoreto says it might not be enough. &ldquo;These are a financing mechanism, not a funding mechanism,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;You still have to pay back the money, and for many rural, small communities that is the only source of financing they might be able to get.&rdquo; Water utilities carry the bulk of the funding, and are replacing pipes at a rate of 0.5 percent per year&mdash;around 200 years to replace the entire system whose pipes won&rsquo;t last half that long. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s also a need to accommodate growth that&rsquo;s going to occur over the next 20 years,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;We look to see another 56 million new users over the next two decades.&rdquo; These new users will be at a cost of $271 billion to meet those current and future needs. Where solutions lie A combination of proper funding and sustainable projects will help bring America up to a B grade, said DiLoreto. Current funding levels are at 2.5 percent of U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but the ASCE is proposing budget allocations of 3.5 percent. Not only is funding important, but ensuring that infrastructure lasts should be taken into account as well. &ldquo;Take into account the total cost of any particular infrastructure from the time you build it until the time you retire it,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;Our design and our projects have to be sustainable based on the triple bottom line of the economy, the environment and society.&rdquo; Holding each other accountable There are two layers involved in holding each other accountable for improving infrastructure: continued investments through taxes and utility payments, and holding our government accountable. According to the ASCE, state and local governments decreased capital spending for drinking and wastewater by 22 percent, without any significant changes in federal capital spending. &ldquo;Both presidential candidates committed to funding infrastructure. Many people that ran for Congress, ran on a platform of funding infrastructure. They were elected. Many people that ran for state and local governments, ran on a platform of infrastructure,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;Our position at ASCE is &lsquo;now that you're elected, you need to make good on those campaign promises.&rsquo;&rdquo; These promises include bills such as WIFIA, which has been authorized, but so far not appropriated to its fully authorized funding level. So far in 2017, $20 million has been appropriated of the fully authorized $35 million. &ldquo;You&rsquo;ve got to put the appropriation in there or it&rsquo;s just a bill,&rdquo; said DiLoreto who noted that if project financing becomes available at low interest rates, utilities and agencies will use them. This may result, however, in utility rate increases due to these programs being structured with financing, and not funding. In terms of paying those utility rates, it&rsquo;s also the responsibility of the consumer. &ldquo;The fact is, at the end of the day, whether it comes through taxes or whether if comes through your rates with the federal government, we all pay for water and wastewater,&rdquo; said DiLoreto. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a user based system, just like your cell phone, your cable television and your electricity.&rdquo; &ldquo;People have to be willing to pay the money to get this taken care of, or it&rsquo;s just going to get worse.&rdquo; Click here if you want more information or to see the rest of the report card.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/america-s-engineers-give-it-to-us-straight/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/america-s-engineers-give-it-to-us-straight/Mon, 01 May 2017 11:38:04 4 things you need to know about pipe-to-manhole connectionsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-pipe-to-manhole-connections/Installing a pipe-to-manhole connection isn&rsquo;t quite like assembling two Lego blocks and letting them be. The seal at this connection point is integral to preventing extraneous water leakage which can erode away the fines around your structure. They also prevent any sewage or stormwater from leaking out and contaminating surrounding groundwater. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve compiled a list of things you need to know about pipe-to-manhole connections to ensure that your structure stays watertight. 1. Which types of connectors are there? Mortar : A combination of cement or similar material, fine aggregate, water and sometimes other biological fibers like glass or wool to increase watertightness mixed in and placed on site. Cast-in connections : A variety of connectors that are affixed using a mandrel inside the manhole form prior to pouring concrete to produce the structure. Cored hole/mechanically installed connectors : This involves a cored or formed hole and a separate, mechanically installed connector . Boot seals : Available either as a cast-in or mechanically installed connector, these flexible rubber seals protrude from the manhole wall and allow for the insertion of a pipe. This type of seal will often have a steel band that is tightened around the perimeter to create a watertight seal with the pipe. 2. Which materials matter? Most connectors are made out of EPDM Rubber . This rubber offers resistance to acid, alkali, ozone and UV rays. Frequently, connectors are shipped to job sites and sit in the elements for days, weeks or months before finally being installed. The UV resistance prevents premature aging due to excessive exposure and maintains the required physical properties. Nitrile Rubber should be used if the drainage system is going to be conveying any type of petroleum or oil product. This type of rubber withstands deterioration due to runoff from gas stations, car washes, parking garages, parking lots, and airports. Mortar is still used frequently across the United States for stormwater projects. Sanitary projects usually require watertight rubber connectors as mortar is not as resistant to movement of the pipe or manhole, and thus more likely to allow leakage over time. In terms of lifespan and labor costs, rubber is much more resistant to differential settlement, and takes less installation time due to the need for mixing and applying mortar and then waiting for it to set before filling in the trench. 3. Which connector should I choose? We generally recommend against the use of mortar joints, as they are less watertight and will inevitably lead to infiltration into your conveyance systems. For smaller pipes , consideration for use of cast-in connections may be based on your confidence in the ability of the precaster to handle precise installation of mandrels containing the connectors inside the forms. Once those connectors are placed and the concrete is poured, there is no changing their location. If the precaster has a coring machine, they will likely prefer to provide cored connections as the coring can be done on demand to meet the requirements of the project. In terms of quality control, some producers prefer coring as they feel more confident the pipe connection is exactly where it needs to be during installation. For larger pipes , we recommend cast-in connectors due to the curvature of the manhole. The larger the hole, the more defined the curve will be, and the more difficult it becomes to get a watertight seal between the connector and the hole around the perimeter of the rubber seal. For plastic pipe , we strongly suggest using a rubber connector regardless of the conveyance system as mortar does not bond well to plastic, meaning leaks through the connection from the get-go. Additionally, plastic pipe is flexible. A typical soil load on most types of plastic will cause the pipe to deflect even just slightly. Rigid mortar cannot accommodate this type of dimensional change, thus increasing the likelihood of a leaking connection. Resilient rubber connectors are by far the best way to seal a plastic pipe to concrete structure connection. Just make note that if you use corrugated plastic pipe on your job site, you will also need a sleeve to go over the corrugated surface and convert it to a smooth surface within the connector. Consider this sleeve when ordering your manholes so the correct outside diameter can be used for installation of the proper connector at the precast plant. 4. Before installation Prepare the pipe : Depending on the connector type, this could mean beveling the end of the pipe, de-burring the pipe to knock off any sharp edges that could tear the rubber, and/or lubricating the connector and the pipe. Use care when preparing and installing the pipe. This is important, especially with cast-in connections. Jagged edges could ultimately tear the connector that&rsquo;s embedded into the concrete, and the only viable solution would be to cut out the connector, core a larger hole and then find a new mechanical connector that will fit both the hole and the pipe. The other, less-effective option would be to mortar the pipe into the new hole. Pipe alignment : Make sure that your pipe is aligned with your connector before insertion. We occasionally hear of a contractor who has installed their pipeline out of alignment with the manhole. Sometimes the alignment is not severe so they are able to deflect the connector slightly and make it work. ASTM C923 states that connectors must be capable of holding 10 psi of water pressure when deflected 7 degrees in order to meet this standard, so deflection to this amount is likely going to be acceptable. But, if the alignment is going to be more severe, they might be required to core a new or a bigger hole in the manhole and then try to use a mechanical connector to seal the connection. For contractors, ensure you&rsquo;re maintaining a precise direction of the pipeline to avoid these field repairs. Prevent differential loading and settlement : There are instances where varying loads can be applied to the top of the pipe or the manhole due to construction equipment or vehicular traffic. If the base has not been prepared properly beneath the manhole and pipes entering into it, then this loading could result in the displacement of the pipe in relation to the hole and connector. A resilient rubber connector will allow for some of this pipe movement up to 7 degrees, as stated previously to meet ASTM C923.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-pipe-to-manhole-connections/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-pipe-to-manhole-connections/Thu, 16 March 2017 11:07:46 2017 Budget Update: The year that infrastructure Trumps allAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/2017-budget-update-the-year-that-infrastructure-trumps-all/Both Canada and the United States have seen a truly incredible amount of change over the past 12 months. While we wait for both countries to release an official budget, here&rsquo;s what to expect for infrastructure funding over the following year. Canadian infrastructure promises We&rsquo;re still awaiting the Canadian budget for 2017, which might be slated to be released in early March . The 2016 budget was updated in early November to bring the total investment in infrastructure up to $186 billion over 11 years. This is a change from last Spring&rsquo;s designated $120 billion over 10 years. The budget includes newly delegated money by Trudeau&rsquo;s liberal government, and continues to use funding from from the previous Conservative government&rsquo;s New Building Canada Plan . The November budget changes mean a $25 billion deficit for 2016-2017, bringing the projected total between 2016 and 2022 to approximately $130 billion in deficits. The Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) While we wait for the Canadian budget to come out, we&rsquo;ve still got our eyes set on the latest CIB announcements. On February 10, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau named Jim Leech as Special Advisor on the CIB. Finance Minister Bill Morneau has said that $35 billion will be put into the bank to encourage foreign investments, with $20 billion coming from private sources and $15 billion coming out of the budget. Leech will be working with Morneau and Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Amarjeet Sohi, among others, to implement the bank. Updates on Canadian projects We like following up on what projects are important to Canadians, and which ones are moving forward. Check out this list of the top 100 infrastructure projects in the works across Canada at top100projects.ca . You can also look at water infrastructure projects across the country that are being funded by Public-Private Partnerships (P3) under the New Building Canada Plan at p3canada.ca . What does the future hold for America? Newly elected President Donald Trump has pledged to spend $1 trillion on upgrading and modernizing roads, ports bridges, public transportation and other transit systems across the country. Though no official budget proposal has been released as of yet, here&rsquo;s a breakdown of what that looks like so far. The plan to modernize infrastructure More than two-thirds of the country think that it&rsquo;s very important for Trump to invest in infrastructure, according to this poll . Trump has promised to release a more detailed outline of his infrastructure initiative during the first 100 days of his administration. Among these details is a recent list of $137 billion-worth of infrastructure projects all requiring private financing. There are a total of 50 projects . What will funding look like? A big part of President Trump&rsquo;s platform was the American Energy and Infrastructure Act, which will put $1 trillion of funding into infrastructure over the span of 10 years. The plan, however, is to remain deficit-neutral. Instead of depending on loans, the government will encourage public-private partnerships with infrastructure tax-credits, and keep projects on track with incentive-based contracting. A 10-page whitepaper released in the fall offers $137 billion in federal tax credits to private investments in transportation. Some critics have noted that investors may only want to fund projects with user fees, while other critical infrastructure projects may not gain attention. According to a poll taken in January , 66 percent of Americans currently oppose the Public-Private Partnership plan. In fact, tax-cutting and infrastructure plans could add an estimated debt that Trump has inherited over the next 10 years. The executive order for the wall There&rsquo;s a big Republican elephant in the room, and that&rsquo;s Trump&rsquo;s border wall. Divisive as it can be to those among us, one thing seems likely&mdash;the wall using precast concrete elements. If it does come to fruition, it will be a boon to those working in the construction industry, as it has been before, according to this article by the New York Times . Trump signed the executive order to start building the 1000-mile-long wall on January 25, and we will be following along for more updates on how this will positively impact the infrastructure industry. Changes to the EPA During the first week of his administration, Trump enacted a freeze on EPA funding which only lasted a few days due to concerns brought up by state regulators. An internal review of $3.8 billion in funds by the senate has been completed, while $100 million in grants and contracts are still under review . Meanwhile, the EPA has announced that it will give around $1 billion in long-term, low-cost credit assistance to eligible borrows&mdash;with initial funding coming from the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). Stay tuned with Hamilton Kent on the latest water infrastructure projects to come over the next year.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/2017-budget-update-the-year-that-infrastructure-trumps-all/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/2017-budget-update-the-year-that-infrastructure-trumps-all/Mon, 27 February 2017 10:40:59 Is your municipality ready for its 100-year storm?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/january/23/is-your-municipality-ready-for-its-100-year-storm/It all starts with a few drops of water falling from the sky. Drops turn into torrential downpour. Puddles turn into rivers. Public transit systems turn into stationary shelters for commuters. Basements turn into swimming pools. And manhole covers and underground water infrastructure can&rsquo;t work out whether water is flowing in, or out. What started with a few drops is now the storm of the century, also known as the 100-year storm. What is a 100-year storm? Despite its name, a 100-year storm can happen more than once in 100 years. The likelihood of one happening in any given year is a 1 in 100 chance , or 1 percent. The data used to determine this is based on historical data taken from precipitation patterns in each separate municipality over a number of years. This means that each municipality will have their own measurement for a 100-year storm. Due to factors like urbanization, increased infrastructure and climate change, the measurements for what qualifies as a 100-year storm could be changing as well. Why is it important to prepare? Currently, many cities in both Canada and the United States are unprepared to handle the impact of a 100-year storm. We&rsquo;ve spoken before about Chicago&rsquo;s 500-year storm in 2008 that lead to 11 billion gallons of combined sewer overflow ending up in Lake Michigan. This is only one example of water going untreated due to a water system reaching capacity. In other examples, a municipality could also end up treating extraneous water due to large amounts of inflow and infiltration. Increasing dangers leading to increasing costs Research from both Princeton University and MIT shows that climate change could cause powerful storm surges to occur every three to 20 years. Another study out of the University of Iowa found that floods are increasing in the northern US, while they&rsquo;re decreasing in the south. The declines are related to a decrease in ground water in the south; meanwhile in the north, where ground water is more abundant, there is a greater risk of flooding. The reason that these sections of the country are getting more or less rainfall is so far unknown. In 2016, Canada broke records for the amount of insurable damage caused by natural disasters country-wide. The Insurance Bureau of Canada reported that $4.9 billion of insurable damage was claimed in 2016. Three-billion, seven-hundred thousand of that $4.9 billion is directly related to wildfires in Fort McMurray, while the rest can be attributed to floods in southwest Ontario (where the mayor of Windsor declared a state of emergency) and Atlantic Canada (where manhole covers came off due to water pressure). The increase in insurance claims can also be attributed to 70 percent of Canadians now living in urban areas , where natural disasters leave large numbers of households susceptible to damages. Why are floods more frequent? We&rsquo;ve talked before about the longevity of water infrastructure. Pipes generally last between 50 to 150 years. Pipes installed in the 1800s are thicker than ones installed over the last century&mdash;meaning that they will all begin to fail around the same time. Unfortunately, that time is now. Pipes will continue to fail over the next few decades due to age, corrosion, design and installation. Not only this, but as mentioned above, there is an increase in urbanization in both Canada and the United States &mdash;meaning an increase in grey infrastructure and fewer cases of more permeable green infrastructure. Essentially, if our infrastructure can&rsquo;t handle an increase in frequency in 100-year storms, water won&rsquo;t have anywhere to go, and the number of disruptive and damaging floods will increase. What can you do? The Canadian government has already begun to address increases in storms with the National Disaster Mitigation Program (NDMP) created in 2014. The NDMP earmarked more than $200 million over five years to prepare communities and municipalities for future storms. The 2016 Federal budget also allocated $75 million in new funding to tackle climate change. In terms of what municipalities can do with this type of funding, watertight solutions will ensure that if a storm does happen more frequently, residents won&rsquo;t be caught off guard with systems backing up into basements, streets and waterways. Ensure you&rsquo;re choosing manhole covers that can lock in place, and watertight joints for pipes , so that if a storm surge leads to flooding, extraneous water doesn&rsquo;t enter into your sanitary sewer system.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/january/23/is-your-municipality-ready-for-its-100-year-storm/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2017/january/23/is-your-municipality-ready-for-its-100-year-storm/Mon, 23 January 2017 10:25:01 Canada has a raw sewage problem, here’s whyAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/canada-has-a-raw-sewage-problem-here-s-why/Remember the tragic Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010? More than 750 million litres of oil accidentally spilled into the Gulf of Mexico due to an infrastructure failure. Now let's move a little bit farther north and multiply that amount of pollution by 263&mdash;you'll eventually reach the amount of sewage and untreated wastewater that entered into Canada's waterways in 2015&mdash;also due to infrastructure failures. Although the timeline on these failures, and the infrastructure involved, are different, the results to our water systems is the same. Canada's raw sewage problem According to a report recently published by CBC , more than 205 billion litres of raw sewage and untreated wastewater entered into Canada's lakes, rivers and oceans, last year. This is a 1.9 percent increase from 2014, despite new federal regulations put in place under the conservative government in 2012. The regulations stipulate that municipalities must both treat water to remove solid wastes, as well as organic material, before it re-enters into Canada's water systems. Unless otherwise specified, municipalities have until 2020 to comply to the new regulations. Why is this happening? If we're talking numbers, the increase in pollution in some cases can be attributed to an increase in accurate reporting due to the new legislation, according to Environment Canada. But that doesn't explain what's happening inside the pipes to cause pollution in the first place. Non-existent treatment facilities: Some of this sewage was never being treated in the first place, due to a lack of wastewater treatment plants in certain locations across Canada. This means pollution is being dumped with little or no treatment beforehand. Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs): In municipalities with combined sanitary and storm sewers, it only takes one big storm to cause the city to release untreated sewage and stormwater into waterways. If they don't release this combined flow into waterways, it will back up into people's homes or surcharge from manholes along the collection pipelines. This is because the excess water will cause the sewer collection systems or treatment plants to exceed capacity and overflow&mdash;the water has to go somewhere. Separated systems: Leakages in sanitary manholes, cracked pipes, or faulty joints can lead to inflow and infiltration into sanitary sewers. This can cause overcapacity issues at sewage treatment plants. It can also lead to pipes leaking into nearby waterways, soil and groundwater. How to prevent pollution One way to prevent pollution starts when building sewage infrastructure in the first place. It's now common industry knowledge that combined sewers tend to overflow. Many provinces in Canada have banned combined sewers altogether. Installing separate sanitary and storm sewers allows for stormwater runoff to drain properly, and avoid extraneous water from entering into sanitary systems. Where funding for an overhaul on existing combined sewers is not possible, or where separate sewers are leaking, watertight solutions are an affordable and easy fix. Rubber gaskets at pipe joints should always be used to increase the longevity and performance of the joint and prevent contamination from outflow and inflow. Rubber connectors at pipe-to-manhole intersections are flexible, durable and watertight, a much better option to mortar connections. Watertight manhole covers prevent surface water from entering into sanitary systems, a problem that's especially prevalent in low-lying areas and locations along waterways and in drainage areas. From a land planning perspective, green infrastructure can work with grey infrastructure to prevent the number of pollutants from entering into the system. Read our blog on combining those efforts here . If you're interested in getting compliant with new federal regulations, or if you would like to speak to one of our reps, contact us here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/canada-has-a-raw-sewage-problem-here-s-why/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/canada-has-a-raw-sewage-problem-here-s-why/Thu, 22 December 2016 10:03:20 ARPM honors Hamilton Kent with Safety AwardAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/november/28/arpm-honors-hamilton-kent-with-safety-award/Operating injection molding machines that are capable of applying pressure between 600 and 800 tons, at 350 degrees F is a job with a lot of risks&mdash;if you aren&rsquo;t taking the correct precautions. That&rsquo;s why receiving the Silver Achievement Safety Award from the Association for Rubber Products Manufacturers (ARPM) is a pretty big deal for Hamilton Kent. We are proud to announce that the ARPM recognized our total of zero OSHA recordable occupational injuries or illnesses requiring any lost work days, or restricted work activity in all of 2015 at our Tennessee plant. &ldquo;Our safety record is a direct reflection of the tremendous support we receive from our corporate and home offices,&rdquo; said Michael Antras, plant manager at Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Tennessee facility. &ldquo;It could not have happened without the honest day-to-day commitment of our employees to work safely and to look out for one another.&rdquo; If you would like more information on keeping your work site safe, read our blog on safety here. You can also find OSHA training courses for workers in the construction industry here.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/november/28/arpm-honors-hamilton-kent-with-safety-award/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/november/28/arpm-honors-hamilton-kent-with-safety-award/Mon, 28 November 2016 14:58:10 How Green initiatives can help your stormwater collection infrastructureAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/how-green-initiatives-can-help-your-stormwater-collection-infrastructure/From the sky, to rooftops, down the sides of skyscrapers and houses, along roadways, into sewer systems and back into rivers, lakes and oceans. Rainwater really goes a long way before finishing its cycle&mdash;and picks up a lot of pollutants along the way. Here&rsquo;s how green infrastructure can help keep stormwater treatment costs low in your system. What is Green Infrastructure? Traditional gray infrastructure is the network of pipes for sanitary and stormwater management that keep our cities from flooding. Green infrastructure , on the other hand, uses natural processes to reduce the amount of stormwater runoff from entering into gray infrastructure. It helps reduce the conveyance and treatment costs by keeping some extraneous water from entering into your sewer systems. Green infrastructure attempts to restore some of the natural water cycle into cities that have been built with largely impermeable materials. It keeps the amount of inflow and infiltration to a minimum and works together with more traditional infrastructure to keep unnecessary treatment costs low, and prevent pollution from entering into our water systems. Why is it a good idea for municipalities? Many cities are currently ill-equipped to handle the impact of a 100 or even 500 year storm. Chicago&rsquo;s 500 year storm in 2008 lead to 11 billion gallons of combined sewer water flooding into Lake Michigan&mdash;an event that will most likely be more frequent across the country, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . Though it is imperative that we continue to upgrade and maintain our current gray infrastructure systems to handle these storms, funding these projects becomes more realistic with the implementation of green infrastructure to mitigate some of the extraneous water. Gray infrastructure, in the meantime, should remain watertight in order to keep remaining inflow and infiltration out of water systems. Green infrastructure is a very easy stormwater management strategy to implement. It uses Low Impact Development (LID) and can help out with Best Management Practices (BMP) in your regular gray infrastructure by helping to keep water flow below maximum capacity and prevent Combined Sewer Overflow events (CSOs). Low Impact Development uses assets from a city or park&rsquo;s natural resources to reduce imperviousness that concrete or other high impact developments bring to a landscape. These resources are lower maintenance, lower cost, and also ease costs in sanitary and collection systems by reducing the amount of water being treated. What are some examples of green infrastructure to help mitigate stormwater? There is a wide range of green infrastructure that cities have begun to implement, or give incentives to developers for implementing. These include, but are not exclusively: &mdash; Swales : Also called bioswales, these are essentially grassy ditches in the roadside that filter pollutants and catch stormwater runoff before it enters into a stormwater system. &mdash; Rain Gardens : A shallow depression in a lawn with loose soil and vegetation (unlike grass or concrete) to absorb and filter and runoff that would otherwise be heading towards the gutter. &mdash; Permeable Pavement: Is made from materials that simply allow water to flow through, instead of collect on top of a surface. Chicago implemented a Green Alley program with permeable pavement that infiltrates water, instead of creating flooding. &mdash; Constructed Wetlands: Systems that use wetland vegetation and soils to treat water. &mdash; Tree programs: Programs that offer free trees or incentives for planting trees. Tree canopies can also mitigate run off and encourage restoration to the natural water cycle. &mdash; Green Roofs : This is infrastructure that can be easily installed onto new building developments in cities. These roofs involve a combination of waterproofing, drainage, filter cloths, and vegetation that absorb water until it evaporates back into the atmosphere, instead of running off buildings and entering into stormwater collection systems. What cities have already started their own green infrastructure initiatives? Here are some existing projects to check out: &mdash; Chicago, IL: Sustainable Chicago 2015 &mdash; Houson, TX: Bayou Greenways 2020 &mdash; Los Angeles, CA: Green Streets Program &mdash; New York, NY: PlaNYC &mdash; Philadelphia, PA: Green City, Clean Waters &mdash; Washington, DC: Sustainable DChttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/how-green-initiatives-can-help-your-stormwater-collection-infrastructure/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/how-green-initiatives-can-help-your-stormwater-collection-infrastructure/Tue, 22 November 2016 09:47:46 Is America’s clean drinking water in decline?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/is-america-s-clean-drinking-water-in-decline/Bottled water is on its way towards outselling soda this year for the first time ever. But the reason for it isn&rsquo;t only due to more health conscious Americans. The reason might not be quite so surface level. That is&mdash;it could be buried underground. Some researchers are suggesting that the switch towards bottled water may also be a switch away from tap water&mdash;meaning that Americans are growing weary of crumbling drinking water infrastructure. Here are some fast facts about the state of repair of America&rsquo;s drinking water infrastructure: What&rsquo;s the state of drinking water infrastructure in the U.S.? Water pipes generally last between 50 to 150 years, depending upon when they were installed. Pipes installed in the 1800s are thicker than pipes installed in the post-1945 era, meaning that more recently installed pipes will actually start to fail around the same time as pipes installed much earlier. This time, unfortunately, is now&mdash;and will continue over the next few decades due to age, corrosion, design and installation. In fact, in 1980, 68 percent of water pipes were in excellent condition, according to one study. Twenty years later in 2000, that number fell to 42 percent. One EPA report estimates that there are more than 1,000,000 miles of water main pipe in the U.S. One mile of pipe services 264 people, with more than 54,000 community water systems facing the cost of repair and pipe replacement. How many water main breaks happen each year? In the United States, there are at least 240,000 water main breaks each year according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)&mdash;which comes down to around 700 per day. The Water Main Break Clock keeps a log of the daily number, as well as the repair costs needed based on these statistics. What do leakages mean? It&rsquo;s difficult to measure the extent of drinking water leakages in the United States due to there being no country-wide regulations on conducting water audits. It is estimated, however, that leaking pipes waste 1.7 trillion gallons of water each year. Therefore, water that has been treated and transported from the main pipe to the customer is being lost, along with the energy and costs involved in treating it in the first place. Why do breaks happen? - Corrosion&mdash;from material or corrosive soil - Material defects during the manufacturing process - Cold weather causing material to expand and contract, as well as the ground to shift around the pipes - With cast-iron, joints can be at higher risk of corrosion&mdash;something that can be avoided with watertight solutions . - Wall thickness&mdash;from the 1800s to the 1960s, pipe walls were increasingly manufactured with thinner walls, that generally have shorter lifespans The cost of replacements and repairs Right now, the U.S. spends between $800 million and $1 billion on its water systems each year. In 2012, the American Water Works Association estimated that it will cost more than $1 trillion over 25 years to repair and replace water mains and other underground infrastructure. Starting these repairs and completing them over time means that not all of these costs will be incurred at the same time, so funding is at least more realistic. But it also means that the condition of our water systems will not drastically improve for many years to come. For information on how to stop leaks, and on a variety of watertight solutions, please feel free to contact one of our reps here.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/is-america-s-clean-drinking-water-in-decline/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/is-america-s-clean-drinking-water-in-decline/Sat, 15 October 2016 09:24:33 5 ways to stay safe on the job siteAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/september/15/5-ways-to-stay-safe-on-the-job-site/We all know the importance of wearing a hard hat and steel toed boots on the construction site. But we also know safety on site comes down to more than just wearing personal protective equipment. It means keeping your workers and the public safe from potentially fatal accidents, while delivering and installing on-time. Here are some ways to keep your projects accident-free. Start with proper training It&rsquo;s very important that anybody who is working in an occupation like construction or manufacturing is trained to do their job safely and correctly. With pipe, culvert, or manhole installations, this is equally important as it can be easy to get a finger or hand pinched between two pieces of concrete or between a concrete structure and a chain or strap. This could lead to a minor injury, or something more major like losing a finger or a hand. A lot of contractors will choose to train their personnel who will be working in the trenches, but they can also rely on their suppliers. Most concrete product suppliers have employees that can assist contractors on how to properly install their pipes, culverts or gaskets. There are also a number of Occupational Health and Safety Association (OSHA) courses that job site supervisors are required to take as a part of their job. They can be found here . Sharing this information with their crews is critical, and is often performed on designated days before workers begin their duties. Always use personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPEs) requirements change depending on the level of risk at a job site. PPE should fit properly and be replaced over time before items wear out or become defective. Some basic PPEs include: Steel toed boots or steel shank boots Boots should be both puncture-resistant, and slip-resistant. Gloves They help with pinching and chemical exposure for different types of coatings. Hardhats We see some job sites where they don&rsquo;t wear hardhats but we recommend always doing so to avoid head injuries from elevated equipment or product. Safety glasses or face shields These can change depending on the level of hazards on site. &nbsp; Keep traffic in the trench low The trench is a narrow workspace. The bottom of the trench is going to be only slightly larger than the size of a pipe. So the fewer people you have in the trench, the less likely they are to impede performance of each other&rsquo;s tasks or cause trips or falls while maneuvering within this space. Additionally, if an accident were to happen, this would limit the number of workers involved. A typical box culvert installation either with or without gaskets should have a crew of about three or four workers in the trench: one or two inside the culvert to watch for alignment, and two or three outside the culvert to direct it into place. For pipe installations, depending on the diameter of the pipe, you will need at least two workers. One worker at the back side of the pipe to align it, and one person aligning it from the front Hamilton Kent is very safety oriented&mdash;we design our products and practices to make things safer for people on the job site. For manholes, using products like the Tylox&reg; SuperSeal Gasket (TSS) means less manpower is needed around or inside the manhole when risers are being placed. The gaskets require no lubrication or equalization on site, saving crews time in the trenches. Additionally, if it becomes necessary to lift a riser after initially setting it in order to fix alignment of the steps within the chimney, often times the TSS gasket will remain in place on the spigot, saving the crew from the sometimes challenging job of reapplying butyl sealant or re-seating the regular manhole gasket on the top riser. Close the trench quickly Installation of any type of prefabricated structure&mdash;any type of pipe product or precast concrete structure&mdash;is going to be safer than building cast in place concrete structures. With prefabricated material, it&rsquo;s delivered and ready for immediate installation, so the trench should be open for a much shorter time. With cast-in-place structures, there are a lot more steps involved, making it a much longer process. Additionally with prefabricated products, you will be more likely to use rubber gaskets and connectors, which will also shorten the amount of time needed in the trench. As soon as you put your culverts or pipes together, you can proceed with your proper backfill procedures and be ready to move on to the next phase of the project. There are always risks when it comes to leaving a trench open. Even if the trench is clearly marked there is still a possibility of a construction worker, or even a member of the public, falling in. Closing a trench as early in the job sequence is certainly most desirable for all parties involved. These simple steps and choices can keep workers, and the public, safer from injury on site, and also have the potential to save lives. It&rsquo;s far better to have a healthy balance of safe job site practices and quick installations. For more information on site-safe products, please feel free to talk to one of our reps herehttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/september/15/5-ways-to-stay-safe-on-the-job-site/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/september/15/5-ways-to-stay-safe-on-the-job-site/Thu, 15 September 2016 13:21:10 How to keep the world’s longest floating bridge…afloatAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/22/how-to-keep-the-world-s-longest-floating-bridge-afloat/If there was ever a good test of the effectiveness of your expansion joints, it would be to recruit 7,000 cyclists, 12,000 runners and 27,000 pedestrians onto the world&rsquo;s longest floating bridge in its inaugural 24 hours. And this is exactly what happened for the Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge, more commonly known as SR 520 Bridge, on April 2&mdash;the weekend of the project&rsquo;s opening celebration.The party included a 10 mile run, 20 mile bike ride, and fun fair on the bridge complete with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The original SR 520 Bridge was built in 1963 as a four-lane toll bridge and needed to be replaced due to increasing population and traffic, as well as general deterioration. Its replacement exceeded its length by 130 feet. The SR 520 Bridge now spans 7,580 feet (2,310 meters) across, running along the state route from Medina to Seattle, and has 36 expansion joints from Mageba USA to keep it intact. &ldquo;Every bridge moves due to wind or from traffic, which introduces vibration onto the bridge. That vibration has to be absorbed by some element of connection,&rdquo; said Rodrigo Miranda the SR 520 project manager from Mageba. &ldquo;For being a floating bridge, it has some vertical movement because of the water level rising. The design of the bridge makes it able to take a 20 foot drop based on the water level of the lake,&rdquo; said Miranda. In fact, the nine modular expansion joints ( TENSA MODULAR LR-LS ) that Mageba provided can handle longitudinal movements of over six feet each (2,000 millimeters). This, combined with 27 single gap joints ( TENSA-GRIP RS ) which can handle movements of up to three inches (80 millimeters), means that there is a lot of room for movement along the bridge&rsquo;s length. The joints all use Hamilton Kent Pavement Seals as a part of their design. The rubber seals provide plenty of elasticity within the expansion joint while keeping it watertight. Mageba, a global company with most of its manpower based in Turkey, decided on Hamilton Kent as their local supplier when they started doing business in the US in 2011. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve been working closely with Hamilton Kent for all of the joints that we have provided in the US so far,&rdquo; said Miranda. The largest joints in the SR 520 project have 16 gaps in them. This means up to four feet of longitudinal service movements, and five feet of extreme limit state movements (ELS). This requires a tremendous amount of flexibility and durability from the rubber HK seals. &ldquo;Each joint as a whole system is designed for maximum movement,&rdquo; said Miranda, who noted that the bridge has more than 30 pontoon sections. &ldquo;The movement gets distributed along the whole bridge.&rdquo; Over the summer, contractors will continue to disassemble the original bridge, which runs parallel to the new bridge. Meanwhile, pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are enjoying their record-breaking commutes across Lake Washington on the new bridge.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/22/how-to-keep-the-world-s-longest-floating-bridge-afloat/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/22/how-to-keep-the-world-s-longest-floating-bridge-afloat/Mon, 22 August 2016 09:47:36 Lakewood locks-in community rebuildAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/02/lakewood-locks-in-community-rebuild/Hamblen Avenue in Lakewood, TN, doesn&rsquo;t get much traffic outside of the locals who live there. The small houses are pushed back from the road, some with huge green lawns in front of them. At the end of each driveway is a mailbox that hangs on a post over a gravel ditch. There&rsquo;s no sidewalk, and two years ago the road was completely covered in potholes, patched up concrete, and sinking manholes. &ldquo;The city of Lakewood was a very economical place to live. They had very low taxes and costs, but they did nothing,&rdquo; said Greg Ballard, an engineer with Nashville&rsquo;s Metro Water Services. He noted that the 75-year-old system was not well maintained. &ldquo;They patched what broke.&rdquo; Infrastructure rehabilitation in Lakewood Today, there&rsquo;s a fresh coat of pavement and brand new manhole covers. The updates were a part of the $11 million Lakewood Infrastructure Rehabilitation project to fix the water, sewage and stormwater infrastructure across the entire Lakewood community. More than 300 homes and businesses belong to the neighborhood, which is a former satellite city to Nashville. When the city dissolved itself and joined Nashville in 2010, Metro Water Services proposed a project to the city to rehabilitate Lakewood&rsquo;s outdated water system. &ldquo;The sewers were constructed very inexpensively when they were originally built, and we had a lot of inflow and infiltration into them which is how the project got its start,&rdquo; said Ballard. &nbsp; It all starts on the shop floor Just north of the Canadian border, Patrick van den Berg, plant manager at Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Toronto production facility starts his day at 6:30 a.m. As soon as he arrives, he walks the shop floor and makes sure that the machines are all running properly for the shift transfer at 7 a.m. Two of these are compression molding machines capable of applying pressure of between 600 and 800 tons. The presses are preheated to 350 degrees F, and virgin EPDM rubber compound is placed between them. The powerful presses mold the preformed rubber into a circular casting, which is then cured and cooled for 25 minutes on a large wooden pallet. A mushroom gasket is inserted into the casting that, along with a locking mechanism, forms a seal between a manhole cover to become what is now a finished Lifespan System&reg; unit &mdash;a corrosion-proof rubber manhole frame that prevents inflow from entering sanitary sewers through the top of the manhole. &ldquo;Once the manhole cover is fit into the unit itself, it stops the egress of water where there previsouly was a lot of water running into the system,&rdquo; said van den Berg. &ldquo;You&rsquo;re not going to have a manhole cover that&rsquo;s displaced by surcharge, you&rsquo;re not taking away rainwater and your processing costs are going to go down.&rdquo; Once finished, the units are shipped to Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Winchester, TN plant for local distribution. For this project, Lifespan units were transported just over 100 miles to Lakewood and installed into the infrastructure system on Hamblen Avenue. &nbsp; The Lifespan system on trial &ldquo;It was a unique opportunity for Metro Water Services and a very unusual project for us to go into a community and do a complete rebuild,&rdquo; said Ballard. &ldquo;But then, we don&rsquo;t take over very many satellite cities either.&rdquo; Metro Water Services was approached by a Hamilton Kent representative and local distributors to install The Lifespan System units as a part of the neighborhood&rsquo;s overhaul. The Approved Materials Committee involved with the project&rsquo;s planning determined that they would do a few installations on a trial basis&mdash; on Hamblen Avenue. &ldquo;Because it&rsquo;s a trial, I think there will be a little more interest in how those performed compared to other castings that we put in place,&rdquo; said Ballard who noted that they will be reviewing the units next spring to see how they handled the changes in season. More than patchwork repairs &ldquo;One of the biggest problems is that we have decaying infrastructure in this country,&rdquo; said Ballard. &ldquo;We spend a lot of money to put new things in, we don&rsquo;t spend enough money to keep it up.&rdquo; Over time, Ballard said, you&rsquo;ll start having small problems that lead to big problems and ultimately the infrastructure becomes unusable. Products like the Lifespan System could mean fewer repairs, and help resolve the neighborhood&rsquo;s initial inflow and infiltration problem&mdash;which was the main reason that the project was even initiated. The Lakewood project could also lead to improvements in other areas locally. &ldquo;We are very committed to maintaining our infrastructure, but we have to fight for the resources to do that,&rdquo; said Ballard. With a local focus on infrastructure improvements, it could be local products like Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s that end up paving the way for long term improvement. To find out what infrastructure projects are happening in your community, sign up for Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s monthly newsletter here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/02/lakewood-locks-in-community-rebuild/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/august/02/lakewood-locks-in-community-rebuild/Tue, 02 August 2016 11:03:28 7 things to consider in box culvert designAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/june/16/7-things-to-consider-in-box-culvert-design/Deciding on precast box culverts for your next project is only the first step in the decision making process. Here&rsquo;s a breakdown of the different choices in joints and sealants, fastening devices, and testing procedures, among other considerations for your application. 1. Different joints mean different gaskets Tongue and groove joints This is the most common type of joint. Very few of these are compatible with gaskets, and will need a butyl sealant instead. Sealants work if they are applied to the joint properly, but they are often not as resilient or as watertight as gaskets. Typical applications are where the culvert is open at both ends and hydrostatic water tightness is not crucial. For projects where erosion needs to be regulated, use of an exterior joint wrap in addition to the butyl sealant is often utilized. Single offset joint Single offset joints are easy to manufacture and install on the jobsite. In most cases, a pre-lubricated gasket like Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Tylox SuperSeal (TSS) gasket is utilized with this joint. However, a wedge type gasket can also be installed. &nbsp;In either case, the resulting homed sections are consistent and water tight. &nbsp;2. The recommended psi capability ASTM International&mdash;an international standards organization&mdash;recommends that your box culverts should be able to handle water pressure up to 5 psi under ASTM standard 1677: Standard specification for joints for concrete box, using rubber gaskets . This is the minimum requirement, but, depending on your application, you may need to reinforce the joints with another type of seal. If you&rsquo;re using butyl rope with your tongue and groove joint, you might need to add external wrap. With single offset joints, gaskets such as our Tylox SuperSeal&trade; Box Culvert Gasket have been tested to handle up to 13 psi. Examples of the types of projects that might need to handle higher psi are those with external pressure from high water tables, or internal force because of the conduit being pressurized. &nbsp;3. Do I need restraining devices for my project? Generally speaking, no restraints are necessary to connect box sections together. &nbsp; We are aware of some projects that require these devices in their written specifications, such as those in New York City or underneath railroad tracks. You might also consider restraining devices for projects where there is a significant amount of internal pressure or external vibration in order to keep the box sections from moving. If your project does require restraints, there are a few options: One option is to run cables through hole in each box section to connect the entire culvert. The cables are post tensioned to pull all of the sections together and lock them in tight. This is not an easy task as all of the holes have to line up perfectly with each other during installation. The second option is using bolts placed in pre-formed pockets in the culvert walls spanning between two sections of the culvert and tightening them to lock the sections together. &nbsp;4. If your project needs multiple box sizes Though some projects specify a variety of box sizes, we recommend using as few box dimensions as possible in order to simplify the production and testing at the precast concrete plant. Unless plants have invested in adjustable formwork, the purchase of additional forming equipment to produce a broader range of sizes is a big investment. Also, scheduling the production of a variety of sizes can present challenges. Furthermore, job site delivery, staging and installation are simplified with fewer sizes to handle. &nbsp;5. How to put a bend in your culvert If a culvert requires a bend, contractors will often leave one side of the joint open a little in a few sections. However, caution needs to be taken utilizing this process, as opening up the joint too much (greater than &frac12;&rdquo;) increases the likelihood of a joint leak. To avoid this, we recommend using boxes that have a skew built into them. Producers are capable of creating a skew when they pour the concrete, making joint integrity in the field much higher. One way to ensure simple installation of bent or skewed boxes is by working with the precaster or producer to map out which boxes go where onsite, and marking or numbering on each one for easy identification and proper installation onsite. 6. How should box sections be installed at the job site We recommend requiring ASTM C1675 for the proper procedures for installing box sections in the field. Another resource would be a short installation video we recently created. If a contractor is unfamiliar with box sections installation, a representative from the design engineering firm should be present to ensure procedures are followed correctly at least for the start of the project. If gasketed box sections are being used, the box and/or gasket manufacturer can also have a representative talk to the installation crew about proper procedures specifically related to the joints and gaskets. &nbsp;7. How joints should be tested Our recommendation for testing the joint on gasketed boxes is to perform an external joint test an ASTM recognized testing method. Gasketed box projects should be specified with ASTM C1677: Specification for joints for concrete box, using rubber gaskets and ASTM C1619: Standard specification for elastromeric seals for joining concrete structures . These include the proof of design testing that producers should complete prior to sending box sections to a job site. We also stress using extreme caution when performing off-center alignment testing (from section 9.1.3) as this can be dangerous to personnel on or near the box sections if the joint were to fail suddenly. Joints can also be field tested using products made by companies like Plug-it Products and Cherne Industries Inc. . These companies have variety of products that can isolate joints and test them via vacuum or hydrostatic pressure. These devices are expensive, and are not adjustable to different box sizes, so this could be a big investment for one of the companies on the project. With all of these choices in mind, you can take your projects in numerous directions, while making sure that your culverts stay water tight.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/june/16/7-things-to-consider-in-box-culvert-design/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/june/16/7-things-to-consider-in-box-culvert-design/Thu, 16 June 2016 15:29:13 B.C.’s solid investment in precast box culvertsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/may/16/bc-s-solid-investment-in-precast-box-culverts/Maple Ridge, B.C: home to astonishing views of Canada&rsquo;s Rocky Mountains, clear blue skies as far as the eye can see, and&hellip; rusty metal culverts. At least that was the case before the local government commissioned Langley Concrete to provide their precast concrete box culverts to replace the metal culverts, which had&mdash;clearly&mdash;reached the end of their service life. Metal culvert failures The signs of a failing metal culvert are easy to spot: Rust, perforations through the metal that lead to soil erosion and movement in the culvert, or at its worst&mdash;collapse. If a culvert collapses, it blocks water from being directed safely downstream, which can lead to flooding. Not only that, it can also cause roadway failures and endanger the lives of people around it. An example of this happened at an IHOP in Mississippi last year when a metal culvert failure caused a major sinkhole and car pileup in the restaurant&rsquo;s parking lot. Depending on varying environmental factors (such as frost, soil properties, and ground water), metal culverts are estimated to have a lifespan of 50 to 75 years. Currently, most states design their major highway culverts based on that estimate, but a Missouri Department of Transportation study estimated that the lifecycle could even be as low as 20 years, depending on whether culverts are being properly protected from corrosion. Long lifecycle precast culverts Joel Shimozawa is a technical marketing engineer with Langley Concrete. He thinks it&rsquo;s important to educate the industry on newer technologies like precast concrete culverts, which have an estimated lifespan of 100 years. &ldquo;Metal culverts are a cheaper product to install upfront, but when you consider the lifecycle analysis, they&rsquo;re not actually a cheaper product because they don&rsquo;t last as long,&rdquo; said Shimozawa. &ldquo;We hope that the industry will strive to make better decisions.&rdquo; Unlike metals, precast box culverts don&rsquo;t have rusting surfaces and therefore don&rsquo;t need additional protection in order to keep them in working order. Maple Ridge and Sunday Summit Projects Langley Concrete provided gasketed box culverts for both B.C. projects in Maple Ridge, and one in Sunday Summit. The Sunday Summit culvert was part of a highway realignment project tendered by British Columbia&rsquo;s Ministry of Transportation. &ldquo;That was a project to increase safety for road users. There were a series of hairpin turns, so the Ministry of Transportation wanted to straighten out the highway and make it safer,&rdquo; said Shimozawa. &ldquo;I think they selected precast box culverts because of the ability to build structure into that type of building material and the 22 meters of earth cover on top of the culverts,&rdquo; said Shimozawa, who noted that it would be difficult to install a flexible type of product for this type of application. With culverts, soil stability is just as important as stability of the culverts themselves. If the soil is unstable and begins to move, it can take the culverts with them. Labor savings with gasketed culverts Gasketed culverts come ready to install. Usually precast culverts need on-site application of watertight jointing material. For the Maple Ridge and Sunday Summit projects, however, Langley Concrete&rsquo;s gasketed culverts included pre-installed Tylox SuperSeal&trade;&nbsp; Box Culvert Gaskets from Hamilton Kent. &ldquo;It really simplifies things for the contractor and allows them to install these culverts and carry on,&rdquo; said Shimozawa. &ldquo;They would have had to grout these culverts in the past. They no longer have to do that.&rdquo; The contractors were then able to save time and labor by laying each box section with their sockets facing upstream using a crawler crane. Langley Concrete supplied a pipe puller with the projects. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s basically a hydraulic unit, it locks itself into a culvert to assist with the installation and pull a joint tight,&rdquo; said Shimozawa. &ldquo;If the joint is in tolerance, it&rsquo;s really a plug and play installation for the contractor.&rdquo; If the joint is not in tolerance, then some extra grouting may be required to make sure that the gaskets stay watertight. &ldquo;As far as work site safety goes, you no longer have to be inside these culverts that could be a confined space,&rdquo; explained Shimozawa, explaining that he&rsquo;s been on sites in the past where workers were on their hands and knees crawling through culverts. Next up for Langley Concrete and Hamilton Kent is Site C, a hydroelectric dam in northern B.C. that will require 200 meters of gasketed box culverts. &nbsp; Keep checking our blog for updates on how gasketed box culverts are helping Site C as the project goes on.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/may/16/bc-s-solid-investment-in-precast-box-culverts/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/may/16/bc-s-solid-investment-in-precast-box-culverts/Mon, 16 May 2016 09:09:09 Canada and US: Get ready to feel the water funding flow (Updated)Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/april/18/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow-updated-1/Last month, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau made the first official visit by a Canadian leader to the White House in almost 20 years. While Canadian and American priorities differ significantly, both President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau have frequently had one word on their lips over the past few months: Infrastructure. Both leaders have suggested that it&rsquo;s time to start investing in infrastructure projects across Canada and the United States to keep communities safe and economies growing. Obama has proposed changes to certain EPA water funds for 2017&mdash;though they are expected to release the official budget later than the planned April 15 this year. Meanwhile, the Canadian government released their budget on March 22. The budget will double funding for Canada&rsquo;s infrastructure. According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) every $1 billion invested in infrastructure generates between $1.20 billion and $1.64 billion in real GDP growth. So where will you see these changes? Canadian infrastructure promises The new Canadian Liberal Government has promised $60 billion over 10 years towards infrastructure. This is on top of money that was already designated towards infrastructure by the previous Conservative government through the New Building Canada Plan, bringing total infrastructure funding to $120 billion, spread out over 10 years. This extra funding is set to be split evenly across each province and territory. Each province, territory and municipality will then also have to match the funds given to them by the federal government&mdash;turning this extra $60 billion into $180 billion across the country&mdash;if no changes are made to the way that funds are typically split. Canadian budget rollout A Phase 1 rollout of $11.9 billion of these funds will start immediately for shovel-ready projects across Canada, including $5 billion for investments in water, wastewater and green infrastructure. Part of this is $2 billion for the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund, which will be allocated over four years to upgrade at-risk wastewater facilities. First Nations communities will also be seeing a lot of new funding with nearly $2.5 billion coming out of the $5 billion for water, wastewater and waste management infrastructure.&nbsp;There have been ongoing boil water advisories on a number of reservations due to poor water quality. More infrastructure funds are also continuing to flow each year from the Gas Tax Fund and Incremental Goods and Services Tax (GST) Rebate for Municipalities ($3 billion), and from the New Building Canada Fund&rsquo;s Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure component ($9 billion). Any money that the government has leftover each year will go to municipalities via gas-tax payments to make sure that all of these funds are being allocated. The new government has also suggested opening a Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) as a means of ensuring that projects are selected through a smarter, more transparent and well-planned screening system. The government has allocated a $50 million capacity building fund that supports the use of asset management best practices across Canada, in order to manage public funds efficiently and productively. Canadian projects One Canadian city in particular that is hoping to benefit from the increase in infrastructure funding is Halifax. The city needs $2.5 billion in funds for a long-term plan to upgrade water and wastewater systems. Check out the top 100 infrastructure projects in the works across Canada here . You can also look at water infrastructure projects across the country that are being funded by Public-Private Partnerships (P3) under the New Building Canada Plan here . Changes for the United States We&rsquo;ve written before about what happened inside the pipes in Flint, MI, and this city continues to be a tragic example of why keeping infrastructure up-to-date is critically important. A union fund has pledged $25 million to help fix the pipes in Flint, but the government is in the process of making changes to all levels of funding to stop this from happening again. Proposals from Obama Obama recently proposed adding $158 million to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program called the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) . It&rsquo;s an 18% increase over this year&rsquo;s funding and will directly help communities affected by water contamination. The 2016 fund has $20 million, with an assumed state match of $5 million. You can check out how much funding is going to each state from the DWSRF here and the CWSRF here . Stay tuned with Hamilton Kent on the latest water infrastructure projects to come over the next year.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/april/18/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow-updated-1/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/april/18/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow-updated-1/Mon, 18 April 2016 10:44:55 Canada and US: Get ready to feel the water funding flowAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/march/14/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow/Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau made the first official visit by a Canadian leader to the White House in almost 20 years. While Canadian and American politics differ significantly, both President Obama and Prime Minister Trudeau have frequently had one word on their lips over the past few months: Infrastructure. Both leaders have suggested that it&rsquo;s time to start investing in infrastructure projects across Canada and the United States to keep communities safe and economies growing. Obama has proposed changes to certain EPA water funds for 2017, and the Canadian government is currently planning a budget that will double their investment into Canada&rsquo;s infrastructure. According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (see page 15 of the PDF) every $1 billion invested in infrastructure generates between $1.20 billion and $1.64 billion in real GDP growth. We&rsquo;re here to break down where you&rsquo;re about to see these changes, and how you can take advantage of them for your shovel-ready projects. Changes for Canada The new Canadian Liberal Government was elected on October 19, 2015. Since elected into office, they&rsquo;ve acted on 14 of their 217 promises , and started on 32 more. Of those 217 promises is an extra $60 billion over 10 years allocated for infrastructure. This is on top of money that was already designated towards infrastructure by the previous Conservative government through the New Building Canada Plan, bringing the total over 10 years to about $125 billion. This extra funding is set to be split evenly across each province and territory. Each province, territory and municipality will then also have to match the funds given to them by the federal government&mdash;turning this extra $60 billion into $180 billion across the country&mdash;if no changes are made to the way that funds are typically split. Any money that the government has leftover each year will go to municipalities via gas-tax payments to make sure that all of these funds are being allocated. The budget for these funds is set to be released on March 21 or 22 .Canadians don&rsquo;t know yet where funds are being allocated, but Liberal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi said the government&rsquo;s goal is to have money flowing towards projects by the start of 2016 construction season. The new government has also suggested opening a &nbsp;Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) as a means of ensuring that projects are selected through a smarter, more transparent and well-planned screening system. One Canadian city in particular that is hoping to benefit from the increase in infrastructure funding is Halifax. The city needs $2.5 billion in funds for a long-term plan to upgrade water and wastewater systems. Check out the top 100 infrastructure projects in the works across Canada here . You can also look at water infrastructure projects across the country that are being funded by Public-Private Partnerships (P3) under the New Building Canada Plan here. Changes for the United States We&rsquo;ve written before about what happened inside the pipes in Flint, MI, and this city continues to be a tragic example of why keeping infrastructure up-to-date is so important. Flint&rsquo;s crisis has been a hot topic in both President Obama&rsquo;s agenda, as well as in upcoming election platforms as something that could have been prevented at every level of the government. Already, a union fund has pledged $25 million to help fix the pipes in Flint, but the government is making changes to all levels of funding to stop this from happening again. Obama recently proposed adding $158 million to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program called the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). This is an 18% increase from this year&rsquo;s funding and will directly help communities affected by water contamination. The 2016 fund has $20 million, with an assumed state match of $5 million. Some senators have criticized Obama&rsquo;s proposal as extra funds for the DWSRF will come from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) , which keeps lakes and rivers clean by upgrading wastewater treatment plants. If overloaded, wastewater and pollutants from outdated treatment plants can flow into lakes and rivers. Critics have also argued that the source of the corrosive water in Flint&rsquo;s pipes stemmed from contaminated river water. You can check out how much funding is going to each state from the DWSRF here and the CWSRF here . Stay tuned with Hamilton Kent on the latest water infrastructure projects to come over the next year.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/march/14/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/march/14/canada-and-us-get-ready-to-feel-the-water-funding-flow/Mon, 14 March 2016 14:08:07 Winter woes for aging infrastructureAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/february/24/winter-woes-for-aging-infrastructure/Polar vortices, snowstorms and El Ninos&mdash;the past few years haven&rsquo;t been easy on people weather-wise, but how has our infrastructure been keeping up with cyclical changes? We&rsquo;ve outlined three major problems facing our infrastructure as a direct result of snow, salt, and cold temperatures. Why are our manholes exploding? During the week following winter storm Jonas from January 22 to 24, the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) responded to more than 400 manhole fires across the city . This wasn&rsquo;t a new phenomenon; during January and February 2014, the FDNY responded to 3200 manhole fires. So why doesn&rsquo;t this happen in every city after a big snowstorm? Some cities across the United States run their power lines underground, as a way to avoid power outages due to ice storms, high winds and other natural disasters. The grids for these lines in cities, such as New York City or Los Angeles, run underneath our roadways. These are accessible through manhole covers into underground utility vaults. Power companies speculate that the most likely cause of the fires is a combination of old, frayed wires, water, and road salt. The corrosive, salty water gets in through the manhole covers and erodes the rubber, lead, or paper insulation on the wires. The wires are conducting about 13,000 volts of electricity and cause sparks. The insulation, in turn, catches fire or melts , releases dangerous, noxious gases that cause built up pressure underneath the manhole covers. What can happen in this type of high-pressure situation is the high-voltage wires can ignite the built-up gasses, causing an explosion. The manhole cover could flip over, or launch up to at least 50 feet in the air&mdash;as it did in this video . Although it&rsquo;s rare for an actual explosion of this caliber to happen, manhole fires are much more common. This puts everyone on the street at risk of injury . A heavy, cast-iron manhole hit a man in 2015&mdash;and he survived . Power companies do continued maintenance on these wires, to make sure they aren&rsquo;t fraying. They&rsquo;re also replacing solid manhole covers with grates as a means of releasing the pressure from built up gasses. This won&rsquo;t however, prevent manhole fires from happening. This is where a watertight system would help to prevent conductive and corrosive salty water from entering into the system in the first place. Freeze and thaw wear and tear A manhole affected by a freeze-thaw cycle is one that could end up sinking into the ground. This can lead to an uneven dip in the road or infiltration-related concrete failures. Water gets into the porous concrete , freezes as the temperature drops, and causes the concrete or asphalt&mdash;which doesn&rsquo;t have enough elasticity&mdash;to crack. This can also cause existing cracks to widen. More water leaks in, leading to significant pavement damage. This can be happening as often as daily, with temperatures rising and falling with the sun throughout the winter season. If too many cracks occur, water can eventually get into the ground below and cause erosion of the underlying soil through leaks into the manhole structure. This in turn allows the road surface to sink, creating potholes and further likelihood of damage to the manhole. A properly sealed manhole structure, connections and frame can at least prevent the infiltration of surface water and soil into the sewer structure, and avoid the additional road surface damage. Additionally, a rubber manhole frame will absorb much of the shock and vibration created by roadway traffic, protecting the surrounding road surface from additional cracking and the underlying manhole structure from structural damage. Stormwater overflow after a big snowstorm Winter storm Jonas didn&rsquo;t just increase the number of manhole explosions across the east coast of the United States this winter. With massive amounts of melting snow&mdash;as was the case following this snow storm&mdash;the runoff needs somewhere to go. Our stormwater and sanitary systems aren&rsquo;t always prepared for it. This type of thaw can cause overcapacity problems on sanitary sewers that are not watertight. As the melting snow and ice runs into leaky manhole covers, the surface water inflow can cause sewer overflows and surcharge of sanitary water into roadways and waterways, and in some cases, major flooding. We&rsquo;ve spoken before about how properly maintained stormwater sewers should be built to handle the proper climate of an area, and this is no exception. Stay safe this winter and spring as El Nino continues to hand us surprises in our weather. Ask your local government representatives and sanitary collection system departments to research the right infrastructure solutions for your city, town or region. Hamilton Kent is happy to be a resource to any agency or firm. Photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty Imageshttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/february/24/winter-woes-for-aging-infrastructure/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/february/24/winter-woes-for-aging-infrastructure/Wed, 24 February 2016 16:09:01 HK looks forward to 2016Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/january/19/hk-looks-forward-to-2016/Upcoming Infrastructure Reports The Canadian Public Works Association (CPWA) is releasing The Canadian Infrastructure Report Card at the beginning of 2016 following the same format from 2012 . The report card follows a similar format to America&rsquo;s Infrastructure Report Card released by the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) released in 2013 that notoriously received a D+. The ASCE&rsquo;s next report card isn&rsquo;t coming until 2017. Until then, they will be releasing individual report cards for different states. They&rsquo;ve already released a report card for Alabama in 2015 (it received a C-), and will be releasing report cards for Colorado , Florida , and New Jersey through 2016. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has also released a Report Card on California&rsquo;s Response to Drought where they evaluate the state&rsquo;s urban water conservation efficiency, stormwater capture and reuse among other things. Stormwater responses to climate change Along with these report cards, governments are starting to think differently about climate solutions in urban centers. This is why, over the past five years, we&rsquo;ve been seeing changes to stormwater solutions outside of the pipes. Innovations like green roofs ease up on the amount of stormwater runoff in urban centers by using plants that can not only absorb water that would otherwise pool on rooftops or in parking lots, but also transpire it back up into the atmosphere. This process also leads to fewer contaminants in our water and less overflow in stormwater systems. And we could be seeing more of it in the future. Governments are having to get creative with how to conserve their water in states experiencing drought. One solution has been to reduce the amount of water being delivered to the Greater Los Angeles area by 15 percent. They&rsquo;ve also protected their drinking water supply by dropping 96 million plastic balls into their reservoir. Government Funding for 2016 We&rsquo;ve spoken before about the US$305 billion FAST Act passed by President Obama in December. Here are some other grants and funding increasing for 2016: The EPA is contributing grants to each state from various funds in 2016 that will go towards water infrastructure improvements and projects. The first type of grant comes from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). This is the annual allotment of federal funds for states. You can check out what funds your state, tribe or territory can look forward to here . The second type of grant given by the EPA comes out of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). A record of funds for 2016 hasn&rsquo;t been released yet, but you can see where grants went for 2015 here. For Canada, in the wake of the government changeover in 2015, infrastructure spending will increase. Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities is working to develop a 10-year infrastructure investment plan that will increase federal infrastructure by CAD$60 billion over the next decade. In the meantime, the government will move forward with the CAD $32 billion Community Improvement Fund, CAD $14 billion New Building Canada Fund , CAD$1.25 billion P3 Canada fund (Public-Private Partnerships) and CAD$6 billion in existing infrastructure programs for 2016. Tax Hikes To mitigate the need for new infrastructure across Canada and the United States, municipalities are taking charge with both proposed and approved tax hikes. A large portion of these tax increases will benefit improvements in drinking water, stormwater, and sewage infrastructure. Regina, SK , for example, is incorporating a tax hike of 6% for their water and sewage&mdash;these improvements include continued work on their sewage treatment plant. Other cities such as Ottawa , ON, have implemented both tax hikes for 2016 ( 6% for water and wastewater bills ) and will be starting an 8-month awareness campaign about a change in structure for water and sewer bills in 2017. Meanwhile, some municipalities such as Wichita , WY are outsourcing to consultants to report on the state of their infrastructure, decide what needs to be replaced or upgraded, and how to best fund these improvements.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/january/19/hk-looks-forward-to-2016/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2016/january/19/hk-looks-forward-to-2016/Tue, 19 January 2016 11:51:06 House and Senate agree on $305 billion for infrastructureAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/december/07/house-and-senate-agree-on-305-billion-for-infrastructure/There&rsquo;s a certain amount of concern that comes when the United States&rsquo; Department of Transportation announces that they will have to stop making infrastructure payments to state and local governments, thanks to a near-bankrupt Highway Trust Fund (HTF). The fund was down to $6.5 billion in July before receiving an $8 billion boost that was meant to last until June 2016. A number of stopgap solutions have been put into place to keep the HTF afloat &mdash; 34 short term solutions since 2008 to be exact. Finally, Obama has signed the $305 billion FAST Act passed by the House and Senate negotiators to provide long-term funding for five years. Here&rsquo;s what we know about the bill: &nbsp; FAST Act Facts A conference of negotiators from both the Senate and the House decided on the act after each passing the separate DRIVE Act and STRR Act over the past five months and working out their differences . The bill is called the Fixing America&rsquo;s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. A summary of the act emphasizes funds for roads and bridges, public transportation, safety, hazardous material reforms and railroads and will update research and transportation standards developments for the growth of technology. The FAST act, though one year shorter than the two Acts passed by the Senate and the House separately, will allow for more spending annually. How is it being funded? The FAST Act reapproves the fuel tax at 18.4 cents for gas and 23.4 cents per gallon for diesel. This is the same rate that the tax has been for more than two decades&mdash;raising the tax is seen as less-than-favorable as lower-income drivers tend to have cars with lower gas mileage, meaning that they would end up paying more towards the HTF. The amount of revenue coming from this tax is also decreasing due to more fuel-efficient cars and fewer drivers on the roads. This means that fewer that 50 percent of the funds that are currently paying for highway infrastructure are coming from the fuel tax and are instead coming from other general taxes. This has added up to for the fund, and a $16 billion deficit&mdash;and is still unable to keep up with the need for maintenance. New funding for the FAST Act will come from tax collection services that will be contracted out to private companies, as well as customs fees, and passport rules for those with delinquent taxes. This means those with over $50 000 owed to the IRS could see their passports confiscated&mdash;a tactic that is slated to raise $400 million over a decade. Send us a Tweet and let us know what you think of the FAST Act.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/december/07/house-and-senate-agree-on-305-billion-for-infrastructure/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/december/07/house-and-senate-agree-on-305-billion-for-infrastructure/Mon, 07 December 2015 10:35:05 HK Receives ISO 14001:2004 certificationAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/hk-receives-iso-140012004-certification/Hamilton Kent is pleased to announce our manufacturing facilities located in Toronto, Ontario and Winchester, Tennessee both received certification to the ISO 14001:2004 Environmental Management Standard on May 1, 2015.&nbsp; We have been working towards the implementation of an Environmental Management System to enhance our Occupational Health and Safety and Quality Systems. This certification supports our environmental stewardship and our desire to be earth friendly&nbsp; and sustainable in all of our manufacturing operations as reflected in our Environmental Policy .&nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/hk-receives-iso-140012004-certification/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/hk-receives-iso-140012004-certification/Tue, 01 December 2015 12:00:55 2015 HK Customer Survey ResultsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/2015-hk-customer-survey-results/In the Fall of 2015, Hamilton Kent once again surveyed its customers to learn what is most important to them as well as how they rank the service and products they are receiving from us.&nbsp; We promised to share the results with our customers, so below is a compilation of the results from the categories rated as most important during the survey. &bull;&nbsp;Value received &ndash; 100% very satisfied or satisfied (same as 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Sales and technical support &ndash; 100% very satisfied or satisfied (up slightly from 99% in 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp; Quality of products &ndash; 100% very satisfied or satisfied (up from 98% in 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Product performance &ndash; 100% very satisfied or satisfied (slight increase from 98% in 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Response to complaints - 100% very satisfied or satisfied (improvement from 98% in 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Accuracy of orders - 95% very satisfied or satisfied (slight drop from 100% in 2014) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Timeliness of deliveries - 92% very satisfied or satisfied (mild improvement from 91% in 2014) &nbsp; We also gave customers a chance to leave general comments while taking the survey, and below are a few of them: &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Over the years, we have been a proud partner of Hamilton Kent. We find your dedication to your customers unsurpassed.&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Very satisfied with your services&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;There is great clarity in our communications with your team, subsequently all orders are correct and timely.&rdquo; &nbsp; Hamilton Kent certainly appreciates the feedback we receive from our customers as it brings to light what we are doing well and where we need to make improvements. We plan to survey our customers again in the Fall of 2017, and to publish the results soon thereafter.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/2015-hk-customer-survey-results/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/2015-hk-customer-survey-results/Wed, 25 November 2015 10:42:35 How did lead get into Flint's drinking water?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/19/how-did-lead-get-into-flints-drinking-water/Photo credit: Jake May | MLive.com (Jake May | MLive.com) People across the country are zeroing-in on Flint, Michigan, asking &ldquo;What went wrong?&rdquo; Corroded pipes have been leaking lead into homes and schools &mdash;and into drinking water&mdash;for over a year now. Concerned parents sit with their children at the doctor&rsquo;s office as high lead counts are found in their blood test results&mdash;resulting in the declaration of a public health emergency and the need for ongoing monitoring for developmental damage done. Mayor Elect Karen Weaver called for Flint to be named a National Disaster Area . Meanwhile, City officials point fingers at each other as local activists uncover false reports from the past year of testing for lead in the water. The EPA and Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler will now audit the Michigan drinking water program as a result of the crisis, which came about after the City terminate d their service with the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) in 2014 in anticipation of switching to the Karegnodi Water Authority (KWA ) . The City had switched to water taken from the Flint River as an interim source, while they waited for the KWA water to arrive, but is now back on the DWSD&mdash;though residents are still at risk of high levels of lead. So what went wrong inside Flint&rsquo;s pipes? The City&rsquo;s pipe system was built for a much larger, more prosperous Flint&mdash;which has had a diminishing population in the wake of auto-industry factory closures. The pipe network has deteriorated along with the population, with water often stagnating and becoming discolored in the pipes. Even before lead was on residents&rsquo; radars, they were boiling their water&mdash;first for high levels of fecal coliform bacteria in their water, and then elevated levels of trihalomethanes (THM) that resulted from high chlorine levels put into the water to mitigate the coliform bacteria. Meanwhile, inside the pipes, Flint&rsquo;s river water wasn&rsquo;t being treated with any chemicals designed to control corrosion . The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) decided against corrosion control after allegedly accidentally applying the rules for a much smaller city than Flint to the water system. As a result, lead began leeching out of a biofilm inside the pipes and into the water system from the highly corrosive river water. The biofilm is a coating created by phosphates added to the water. The MDEQ was actually adding lime to the water as corrosion control, which ended up making the problem worse, and as a result, children are now being tested for lead poisoning at their schools. Our clean water is a precious resource, and residents shouldn&rsquo;t have to wait until aging pipes start to leak or becomes infiltrated with dangerous contaminants due to cost-cutting or neglect. If you&rsquo;re in a position to do so, advocate for or invest in new infrastructure. If not, we suggest writing to your area&rsquo;s elected officials and remind them how important it is to get water infrastructure right. Suggested Resources &nbsp; &nbsp; Domestic Water Infrastructure Hamilton Kent offers durable, watertight gaskets for all varieties of pressure pipe materials and rehabilitation or repair projects. Our gaskets help cities avoid high repair costs for their drinking water and stormwater systems. Learn more &nbsp; Credeau talks 8-billion liter sewage dump in Montreal Montreal&rsquo;s controversial plan to dump eight billion liters of untreated wastewater into the St. Lawrence River offers a great opportunity to look at research (coming out of the very same city) on how these environmentally questionable actions can be avoided in the future.&nbsp;&nbsp; Learn more &nbsp; Aging infrastructure shows flaws during Tampa&rsquo;s hurricane season Ageing infrastructure is an issue that communities have to deal with during a normal season of rainfall&mdash;but how do these communities fare when water levels go from an area of concern, to a state of emergency?&nbsp; &nbsp; Learn morehttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/19/how-did-lead-get-into-flints-drinking-water/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/19/how-did-lead-get-into-flints-drinking-water/Thu, 19 November 2015 14:47:15 Hamilton Kent works with Munro Ltd. on innovative sealing solutions Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/03/hamilton-kent-works-with-munro-ltd-on-innovative-sealing-solutions/Working closely with our clients has been a great way to continue to engineer our innovative gaskets and sealing products. We recently spoke with Vice President of Engineering at Munro Ltd. Benoit Tanguay. Munro Ltd. regularly utilizes our products and services with their reinforced concrete pipe, manholes and box sections, as well as concrete pressure pipe. In the past, we&rsquo;ve worked with Munro Ltd. on custom designed gaskets manufactured with special materials for unique job site applications. Check out our video of Benoit talking about working with Hamilton Kent. He discusses how our products, pricing and technical assistance have helped Munro Ltd. install their infrastructure competitively, efficiently and on-time.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/03/hamilton-kent-works-with-munro-ltd-on-innovative-sealing-solutions/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/november/03/hamilton-kent-works-with-munro-ltd-on-innovative-sealing-solutions/Tue, 03 November 2015 09:38:04 Easy determination of I&I in sanitary systemAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/easy-determination-of-ii-in-sanitary-system/We&rsquo;ve got a really (REALLY) easy way to determine how much I&amp;I is in your sanitary system! &nbsp; I&amp;I accounts for almost half of what you treat! &nbsp; Municipal and federal agencies in Canada and the US have long recognized the problems associated with I&amp;I (inflow and infiltration) in separate sewage collection systems. &nbsp;&nbsp;Very little precise information is available on the extent of I&amp;I as a national problem. So how can managers and regulators ever hope to formulate strategies to improve their systems and benchmark their performance? &nbsp; George Kurz, P.E., DEE, an independent engineer in Madison, Tennessee is currently studying this problem in a pretty unique way with the intention of determining the quantity, scope, and characteristics of I&amp;I for the entire state of Tennessee.&nbsp; George utilizes readily available data routinely recorded by plant operators in MOR&rsquo;s (Monthly Operations Reports) and specifically evaluates daily influent flow, influent organic load, and rainfall for one year. &nbsp; Here&rsquo;s George&rsquo;s basic explanation of how he works his magic: &nbsp; &ldquo;Recent guidance documents from EPA and The Federation of Canadian Municipalities describe an approach for estimating I&amp;I which relies on hourly flow monitoring. However, most treatment plants in Tennessee record flows from chart recorders or totalizers on a daily basis &ndash; this has been done for years. This study demonstrates a simple approach that uses data already routinely collected daily by plant operators. It includes the traditional hydrologic approach and also estimates the effect of I/I dilution.&rdquo; &nbsp; George goes on to explain that; &nbsp; &ldquo;Average BOD concentrations in the influent conveyed to plants in Tennessee varied from 32 to 893 mg/l. The instances of high concentrations of BOD were usually associated with known industrial discharges. Other investigators found that undiluted residential BOD concentrations averaged around 350 mg/l. EPA used this figure as an average concentration for undiluted residential BOD in its guidance for design of pressure systems and small alternative treatment systems. When the Tennessee influent BOD levels were analyzed to estimate the amount of I&amp;I dilution, about a third of the total I&amp;I was attributable to dry weather infiltration, which was not detected by flow analysis alone. In a few cases, infiltration may be overestimated due to significant, diluted industrial flows or flows from combined sewer systems.&rdquo; &nbsp; In plain language, he is calculating how much clean water is leaking into the sanitary system based on how diluted the sewage becomes when compared to dry weather concentrations &ndash; in conditions when presumably there is zero inflow occurring.&nbsp; &nbsp; Simply put and most importantly to cash strapped municipalities struggling with this problem, this approach does not require installation of additional equipment or costly engineering studies! &nbsp; George is about halfway through Tennessee&rsquo;s 227 municipalities &ndash; and early results show that 45 per cent of the sewage those systems are treating is clear water on an annual basis.&nbsp; I&amp;I represented more than half the annual flow in two-thirds of those systems. Projecting this leakage rate across all systems in Tennessee results in an annual I&amp;I estimate of 112,500 million gallons (425 million m 3 ) for the state. &nbsp; Based on the current results at the halfway point of the study, I&amp;I represents an annual cost greater than $200 million in Tennessee. This cost assumes a uniform O&amp;M cost of $1.80 per thousand gallons (or $0.47per m 3 , which is very conservative when compared to the EPA&rsquo;s 2014 recommended O&amp;M rate of $2 to $5 per thousand gallons. It&rsquo;s important to also note that this cost does not include the &ldquo;capital costs&rdquo; - specifically for the sewer lines, tanks and wastewater treatment plants needed to convey and treat wastewater. &nbsp; In addition to annual I&amp;I, George is also estimating the effects of RDII (rainfall derived I&amp;I) and long-term dry weather infiltration for each system. According to George, the results show that 89 per cent of the plants may exceed the nominal capacity listed in their permit when the RDII flow increases for a 2-year storm (about 3.4 inches or 8.6 cm in 24 hours for middle Tennessee). While that figure is greater than expected, it is not necessarily cause for alarm since most plants have additional capacity to absorb peak flows &ndash; however, the old maxim &ldquo;just because you can, doesn&rsquo;t mean you should&rdquo; applies. &nbsp; The good news? This situation can be reversed and the savings would offset the costs for rehabilitation. &nbsp; George indicates that this approach of using treatment plant flow, rainfall and influent characteristics from MORs is not intended to replace comprehensive monitoring and engineering studies to evaluate I&amp;I and RDII. Instead, the intention is to very effectively analyze all the collection systems in the state with a uniform procedure using existing data and a little math to provide meaningful and useful information to program managers and decision makers. &nbsp; George has created Excel analytical spreadsheets which do the math, so would be useful to individual operators of public systems as an &ldquo;I&amp;I calculator.&rdquo; Small communities are often reluctant to spend any money for additional equipment or engineering studies. This tool provides an opportunity for operators to help themselves to determine the presence and extent of I&amp;I in their systems. &nbsp; We encourage anyone interested in learning more to contact George directly. &nbsp; If you want every little bit of detail, click here ! &nbsp; Find out how Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Lifespan System &ndash; a truly watertight manhole frame and cover - can play such an incredible role in reducing your I&amp;I and use the savings to pay for the project capital costs &ndash; usually in three years: &nbsp; Watch Dan Leger&rsquo;s H2OMG webinarhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/easy-determination-of-ii-in-sanitary-system/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/easy-determination-of-ii-in-sanitary-system/Tue, 03 November 2015 08:54:25 CREDEAU talks 8-billion liter sewage dump in MontrealAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/october/16/credeau-talks-8-billion-liter-sewage-dump-in-montreal/Montreal needs to keep looking for alternatives after the Canadian federal government pulled the plug on the City&rsquo;s plans to dump 8 billion liters of sewage into the St Lawrence River. &nbsp; The city planned the seven-day dump from 26 exit-points along the eastern side of the island, as they bring the Bonaventure Expressway down to street level in the downtown core, and move a snow dump which is connected to a five-foot wide sewer. &nbsp; Much-needed repairs and other work were also going to be done on the sewers after draining them. &nbsp; The project received widespread disapproval from people who use the river recreationally , as well as over 90 thousand people who signed a petition (that was presented to Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and even environmental activist Erin Brockovich . &nbsp; Despite all of this, five of Canada&rsquo;s foremost wastewater treatment experts from the &Eacute;cole Politechnique at the Universit&eacute; de Montr&eacute;al presented a paper on Thursday, October 8, citing that this was not as bad of an idea as it sounds. &nbsp; Sarah Dorner, Canada&rsquo;s Research Chair in source water protection, is a researcher with CREDEAU&mdash;a research, development and validation center for water treatment technologies and processes, which runs out of a network of universities in Montreal. Dorner emphasized that work is required on Montreal&rsquo;s 19-mile-long, southwest interceptor sewer&mdash;something that the sewage drain would have allowed for to avoid major blockages and equipment breakdowns in the future. These breakdowns would inevitably lead to a much less controlled sewage dumping into the St Lawrence River. Despite the Canadian federal government disallowing the City from dumping sewage for now, Montreal&rsquo;s mayor is getting the ball rolling on a plan to incorporate some of CREDEAU&rsquo;s research into a more concrete and long-term infrastructure plan . In his plans, Cod er re estimates that Montreal needs to invest about $1.1 billion for sewage infrastructure. He suggests better planning is a solution&mdash;perhaps so as to not end up in another extreme sewage dumping situation. He would like to focus on improving sewers and aqueducts by using new technologies. By working with CREDEAU, Coderre will be able to leverage their findings and utilize their resources, which have already led to lowered treatment costs in water systems. CREDEAU also emphasizes the need for the City to avoid simply plugging up holes in old infrastructure, which can lead to the spread of bacteria and sediments along the system, as well as corrosion. CREDEAU uses hydraulic models and real terrain in its studies to determine the impact of these types of repairs on a system. &nbsp; &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/october/16/credeau-talks-8-billion-liter-sewage-dump-in-montreal/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/october/16/credeau-talks-8-billion-liter-sewage-dump-in-montreal/Fri, 16 October 2015 12:47:05 Selig receives ASTM Heger AwardAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/selig-receives-astm-heger-award/ASTM Committee C13 on Concrete Pipe has presented Roman J. Selig III with The Frank J. Heger Memorial Award. Selig is the National Accounts Manager for concrete products at Hamilton Kent LLC. The Heger Award recognizes distinguished services and dedication to Committee C13. The committee has a portfolio of standards that play an important role in the standardization of concrete pipes. A member of ASTM International since 1991, Selig works on several C13 subcommittees and is pastchairman of Subcommittee C13.05 on Special Projects. His past honors with ASTM International include the Merlin G. &ldquo;IB&rdquo; Spangler Award in 2003&mdash;to recognize his outstanding technical contributions&mdash;and the ASTM Award of Merit in 2011. Based in Birmingham, Ala., Selig joined Hamilton Kent in 2010. His past work as director of marketing and engineering at Sherman Industries and as a technical resource engineer at Hanson Pipe and Precast kept him local to the area with work in offices in both Alabama and Georgia. After he graduated with a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in civil engineering from the University of Arkansas, Selig served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which included a tour of duty in Vietnam. Outside ASTM International, Selig is an active member of the Transportation Research Board, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Water Environment Federation, the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering, and the American Concrete Pipe Association (ACPA). The ACPA honored Selig with the prestigious Richard E. Barnes Award for lifetime achievement in 2010. Selig is an integral part of the sales, marketing and technical efforts for Hamilton Kent. Pictured: Josh Beakley ( American Concrete Pipe Association ), Eric Carleton (fellow award receipient from National Precast Concrete Association ), Roman Selig (Hamilton Kent) and Fred Cash ( ASTM C13 ). &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/selig-receives-astm-heger-award/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/selig-receives-astm-heger-award/Wed, 14 October 2015 14:31:55 Aging Infrastructure Shows Flaws during Tampa’s Hurricane SeasonAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/september/21/aging-infrastructure-shows-flaws-during-tampa-s-hurricane-season/Low-lying Tampa Bay, Florida kicked off the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season with 16 inches of rain over six weeks. This included flooding, an overflowing sanitary sewer system and the final remnants of Tropical Storm Erika as a hefty reminder of the amount of precipitation the city&rsquo;s aging infrastructure simply can&rsquo;t handle. The city has since received its usual schedule of scattered showers&mdash;but not before exposing its citizens to raw sewage flowing up through manhole covers. This was caused by infiltration into its infrastructure through openings and exposed cracks in its underground wastewater pipes. The city has 220 wastewater pumping stations that were unable to keep up with the near-record breaking rainfall, causing their pipes to overflow. Eric Weiss, director of the city&rsquo;s wastewater department told The Tampa Tribune that the city&rsquo;s pipes are more than 80 years old. Though the city spends $1 million to $2 million a year on wastewater lines and manhole repairs&mdash;Weiss said he doesn&rsquo;t know of any system that could protect against overflows under these conditions.&nbsp; As we&rsquo;ve mentioned before, summer storms can cause catastrophic contamination from stormwater sewer overflow in communities like Tampa.&nbsp; Cities can keep their communities healthy and safe with durable, watertight solutions to prevent leaking pipes and overflowing or sucharging sanitary systems. Systems can run smoothly in a state of emergency with watertight rubber gaskets and pipe-to-manhole connectors and locked-down manhole covers that prevent both inflow and outflow. Check out how Hamilton Kent products protect cities from these types of sanitary sewer system challenges in our 3D underground World .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/september/21/aging-infrastructure-shows-flaws-during-tampa-s-hurricane-season/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/september/21/aging-infrastructure-shows-flaws-during-tampa-s-hurricane-season/Mon, 21 September 2015 15:23:55 Hamilton Kent in the news… and not for what you might think.Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/23/hamilton-kent-in-the-news-and-not-for-what-you-might-think/Whenever Hamilton Kent has the privilege of appearing in the news, it&rsquo;s usually because one of our products was able to help improve a municipal project. Recently, however, our company was featured in Tennessee&rsquo;s Herald Chronicle for a much different reason. The story was about our recycling program! To summarize, Franklin County Solid Waste has been working to reduce waste volume and costs. One way to do that was to encourage businesses to improve their recycling efforts.&nbsp; As a business operating in Franklin County&mdash;in Winchester, TN, to be exact&mdash;Hamilton Kent jumped on board.&nbsp; In addition to looking for ways to reduce scrap and waste in general, we also made a bigger effort to recycle uncured rubber and stainless steel. We were already recycling, but we realized it wasn&rsquo;t a plant-wide priority. Our first step was to purchase more recycling bins and place them around the plant strategically. When logistics were a struggle, we worked with the Chamber of Commerce to coordinate recycling pick-up for all businesses in our industrial park. We also connected with Franklin County to recycle our cardboard.&nbsp; Finally, to get Hamilton Kent employees more involved, we ran a poster contest for their children. All the posters submitted were posted in the plant and the employees voted for a winner, and all entries received gift cards.&nbsp; The recycling program has been really successful&mdash;we have even found somewhere to take our cured scrap rubber. Also important is that our operations are now more in line with the sustainability values we promote in our watertight and durable infrastructure products. &nbsp; A special thanks goes to Esther Hamilton, our shipping, receiving and purchasing supervisor, and Olga Mokrous, our quality supervisor, for their efforts!http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/23/hamilton-kent-in-the-news-and-not-for-what-you-might-think/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/23/hamilton-kent-in-the-news-and-not-for-what-you-might-think/Sun, 23 August 2015 11:22:25 2015 State of the Industry Water Report: Key TakeawaysAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/17/2015-state-of-the-industry-water-report-key-takeaways/Does this list seem familiar: 1. Renewal and replacement (R&amp;R) of aging water and wastewater infrastructure 2. Financing for capital improvements 3. Long-term water supply availability 4. Public understanding of the value of water systems and services 5. Public understanding of the value of water resources Those, according to the American Water Works Association&rsquo;s (AWWA) recently released 2015 State of the Industry Report, are the top five most important issues facing the water industry. Rates and fees not enough to cover expansion When it comes to R&amp;R of aging infrastructure, the report&rsquo;s authors noted &ldquo;a gap between the financial needs of water and wastewater systems and the means to pay for these services through rates and fees.&rdquo; &nbsp;Moreover, 9 percent of respondents felt that water and wastewater utilities are not at all able to cover the full cost of providing service, including infrastructure R&amp;R and expansion needs, through customer rates and fees. &nbsp; &nbsp; Looking ahead, 16% of all respondents said they were concerned that utilities will not be able to cover the full cost of providing service in the future. Breaking it down further, 30% of utility employees reported that their utilities are currently struggling to implement full-cost pricing &mdash; a two percent increase from 2014&rsquo;s survey. &nbsp;&ldquo;In addition, 38 percent of respondents think they will struggle to cover the full cost of service in the future, up from 35 percent in 2014,&rdquo; the report noted. A good financial policy The most important issue regarding infrastructure R&amp;R? Establishing and adhering to a financial policy for capital reinvestment, according to survey results. Prioritizing R&amp;R needs and justifying R&amp;R programs to ratepayers and oversight bodies were also cited as critical to infrastructure revitalization. &lsquo;You don&rsquo;t know me.&rsquo; More still needs to be done in educating the public on water systems and services. Seventy-two percent of respondents said they feel the general public has a poor or very poor understanding of water systems and services, while 61 percent said the public has a poor or very poor understanding of water resources. Regulation frustration In terms of regulatory concerns, chemical spills came in at number one, followed by point source pollution and combined sewer overflows. There&rsquo;s a lot of insight in the report, which you can download here . It&rsquo;s worth a deeper dive.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/17/2015-state-of-the-industry-water-report-key-takeaways/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/august/17/2015-state-of-the-industry-water-report-key-takeaways/Mon, 17 August 2015 16:41:15 Under the road: Water infrastructure and sinkholesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/july/16/under-the-road-water-infrastructure-and-sinkholes/In the wet spring and summer months, stories of gaping sinkholes (like this one and this one ) start to make headline news. And every year, the public has to be re-educated about what sinkholes are. It seems that when people hear about sinkholes, they think about potholes and poor road maintenance. We know, of course, that could not be more wrong. When the sinkhole is a manmade problem&mdash;not a natural one&mdash;leaking underground pipes are almost always to blame for land erosion deep beneath the surface of the road. &nbsp; So what do we do about it? To us, the answer is clear: We need to upgrade our failing, aging infrastructure. At the very least, we need to seal pipe joints and connections.&nbsp; More specifically, preventing the costly catastrophe of a sinkhole starts with the installation of watertight infrastructure.&nbsp;The material matters; grouted joints and connections are not waterproof. Gaskets and flexible connectors made with rubber will provide the best seal that pipes need. &nbsp; Rubber gaskets will prevent any water that is in the soil from seeping through the joints. This prevents erosion of the soil surrounding these important structures and pipelines, which means sinkholes are unlikely to ever occur. Watch our webinar, Connecting The Pipes , to learn more about how to make an entire underground pipe system watertight.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/july/16/under-the-road-water-infrastructure-and-sinkholes/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/july/16/under-the-road-water-infrastructure-and-sinkholes/Thu, 16 July 2015 10:00:05 Are sewer leaks and overflow causing contamination in your community? Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/june/19/are-sewer-leaks-and-overflow-causing-contamination-in-your-community/Summer storms can be refreshing for your flowers and your lawn&mdash;especially after weeks of blaring sun and heat. But heavy storms also wash everything that was once on your driveway and on the roads into your municipality&rsquo;s stormwater collection system. If your system is older and maybe a little more worse for wear&mdash;as many infrastructure systems in North America are&mdash;then leaks can happen. This likely means that pipe joints or connections between pipes and structures are broken, erosion of surrounding soil could be happening, and a sink hole could occur. Worse still, if your municipality has a combined sewer overflow like many do, then a rush of stormwater could cause wastewater to flow into streams, lakes and other waterways, and could even make its way into groundwater.&nbsp; This contamination can be catastrophic. A combined stormwater sewer overflow can affect the health of residents and damage the environment. It can make water undrinkable and unlivable for wildlife. And the expense of clean-up is passed on to the municipality. As water losses increase, the overall cost of operations rises.&nbsp; Leaking pipelines need to be remediated and built with watertight connections between pipe sections and when they connect to concrete structures. One of the best ways to achieve a watertight pipe connection is with a rubber gasket that has been tested to ensure performance and has been installed correctly.&nbsp; You can prevent leaks and overflow by making sure you have a system with watertight connections for minimal losses. See how we&rsquo;ve modeled this and other wastewater system challenges in our 3D Underground World .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/june/19/are-sewer-leaks-and-overflow-causing-contamination-in-your-community/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/june/19/are-sewer-leaks-and-overflow-causing-contamination-in-your-community/Fri, 19 June 2015 14:03:05 Hamilton Kent helps in Swan Trunk sewer improvements for City of Buffalo, NYAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/may/19/hamilton-kent-helps-in-swan-trunk-sewer-improvements-for-city-of-buffalo-ny/As part of an ambitious $2 million Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) to improve the quality of life for city of Buffalo residents, Hamilton Kent is proud to have contributed to the Swan Trunk flow diversion and weir modifications. We worked alongside NPCA-certified manufacturing plant and longtime customer Kistner Concrete Products on the sewer system improvements, which were mandated by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.&nbsp; The task for Kistner Concrete Products was to create 12&rsquo; by 6', 25-ton precast concrete box culverts to increase the system capacity by 100,000-plus gallons. Typically, with no place to contain it, the storm water flows out into the waterways causing environmental and civil damage. These combined sewer overflow (CSO) structures capture that material and hold it until processed at the treatment plants. &ldquo;During storm season, the sewer sometimes overflows or gets surged,&rdquo; says Michael Kistner of Kistner Concrete Products. &ldquo;This particular portion was installed so the surge water could be directed and held for a period of time. When the surge ends, the restricting outlet in the tank allows the water to flow out slowly so the treatment plant is not overburdened.&rdquo; Hamilton Kent&mdash;&ldquo;a pioneer in fabricating gaskets for culvert tanks,&rdquo; according to Kistner&mdash;was tasked with making the specified single offset gaskets for the culvert tanks. Because of the rectangular shape of the tank, traditional gaskets wouldn&rsquo;t work. So Kistner sent the specifications for a box culvert with a rounded corner, single offset joint to be used with the Tylox SuperSeal gasket to achieve a watertight joint between each box section. Kistner mentioned that the consulting engineer at the Buffalo Branch of GPI -Greenman Peterson Inc. was instrumental in recognizing the importance of specifying a quality construction joint in the system.&nbsp; &ldquo;The Hamilton Kent SuperSeal gasket along with the single offset joint box sections were installed at a rate of 30 minutes per section on this project,&rdquo; says Kistner. &ldquo;The owner, engineer, and contractor were all extremely pleased with the smooth supply, installation and final performance of the precast culvert elements.&rdquo;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/may/19/hamilton-kent-helps-in-swan-trunk-sewer-improvements-for-city-of-buffalo-ny/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/may/19/hamilton-kent-helps-in-swan-trunk-sewer-improvements-for-city-of-buffalo-ny/Tue, 19 May 2015 13:38:35 Lifespan in action: See our newest webinar and 3D installation video Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/april/13/lifespan-in-action-see-our-newest-webinar-and-3-d-installation-video/The light at the end of your tunnel should be a watertight manhole system. Leaky manholes lead to serious environmental and financial quandaries that can be avoided with a Lifespan system. Ready to see an installation? Sometimes you just need to see it to believe how easy it could be. You want to ensure your team will be able to complete an installation quickly and with less exertion. We created a 3D installation video that goes through the basics of a Lifespan installation from start to finish. It&rsquo;s not tough or tedious. See for yourself. H2O-OMG! A few weeks ago, we hosted a webinar that detailed how the Lifespan system tackles I/I problems and can have positive environmental and financial impacts throughout your municipal wastewater system. We got a lot of great feedback from attendees and we thought it may be helpful to share it.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/april/13/lifespan-in-action-see-our-newest-webinar-and-3-d-installation-video/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/april/13/lifespan-in-action-see-our-newest-webinar-and-3-d-installation-video/Mon, 13 April 2015 11:35:45 Results of Hamilton Kent’s 2014 Customer SurveyAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/27/results-of-hamilton-kent-s-2014-customer-survey/Hamilton Kent annually surveys its customers to learn what is most important to them as well as how they rank the service and products they are receiving from us.&nbsp; We think it&rsquo;s important to share them with our customers. Below is a compilation of the results from the categories rated as most important during the survey. &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Value received &ndash; 100% very satisfied or satisfied (huge jump from 90% in 2013) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Accuracy of orders - 100% very satisfied or satisfied (slight increase from 97% in 2013) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Sales and technical support &ndash; 99% very satisfied or satisfied (up slightly from 96% in 2013) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Quality of products &ndash; 98.3% very satisfied or satisfied (same as 2013) &bull;&nbsp;Product performance &ndash; 98.3% very satisfied or satisfied (slight drop from 100% in 2013) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Response to complaints - 98% very satisfied or satisfied (slight improvement from 95% in 2013) &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;Timeliness of deliveries - 91% very satisfied or satisfied (slight drop from 92% in 2013) &nbsp; We also gave customers a chance to leave general comments while taking the survey, and below are a few of them: &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Service is always over the top &ndash; Have helped me out of a bind several times...&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;I am very proud to say that having Hamilton Kent as a provider for our company is a tremendous asset.&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Overall on the purchasing spectrum, I am impressed with the service I&rsquo;ve received.&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Happy with Hamilton Kent.&rdquo; &nbsp; &bull;&nbsp;&ldquo;Hamilton Kent significantly improves my opportunities of providing optimum service to our customers.&rdquo; &nbsp; &nbsp; Hamilton Kent certainly appreciates the feedback we receive from our customers as it brings to light what we are doing well and where we need to make improvements. We hope participation in our survey will continue to grow so we can strive to provide the absolute best products and service possible.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/27/results-of-hamilton-kent-s-2014-customer-survey/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/27/results-of-hamilton-kent-s-2014-customer-survey/Fri, 27 March 2015 10:44:55 We’re excited to be working with Martech and Atlantic Purification SystemsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/23/we-re-excited-to-be-working-with-martech-and-atlantic-purification-systems/Look for Martech Inc. and Atlantic Purification Systems bringing our watertight technologies to more communities across North America. In Western Canada, we&rsquo;re partnering with Martech Inc. Martech Inc. is a contracted sales and distribution company, supplying construction products associated to municipal manhole rehabilitation. Together, we share the belief that repairing manholes can restore functionality at a fraction of the cost of replacing the entire system. On the other side of side of the country, Atlantic Purification Systems will be bringing Lifespan to the east coast of Canada. They provide municipal, industrial and commercial customers with innovative solutions for water and wastewater systems. As a proud family business, they honor a tradition of quality, integrity and performance. Looking for a Lifespan distributor in your region? Contact us for a recommendation.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/23/we-re-excited-to-be-working-with-martech-and-atlantic-purification-systems/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/march/23/we-re-excited-to-be-working-with-martech-and-atlantic-purification-systems/Mon, 23 March 2015 10:57:05 What infrastructure challenges does your city face?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/february/06/what-infrastructure-challenges-does-your-city-face/In our last post, we already reflected on the challenges that infrastructure faced in the year that passed. But 2015 isn&rsquo;t going to be a cakewalk. We&rsquo;ve been listening to municipal professionals to get an idea of what they see as some of the most important issues to address in 2015 going forward. They came up with 5 major issues: 1) Inflow and Infiltration &ndash; There is still a big problem with I/I, even after all of the work that&rsquo;s been done. Much of the wastewater collection systems in North America has lost efficiency and effectiveness. Many cities haven&rsquo;t been proactive enough in their preventative maintenance regime or made major capital investments in the last few years. There are a number of solutions out there, including repair at the top of the manhole . 2) Roadwork &ndash; Roads need work and we have not even seen the worst of this winter yet. Cities and the highway agencies can&rsquo;t seem to get ahead on this, likely because of the lack of funding. This is only going to get worse with gas prices down. Highway funding relies on gas tax, which will be reduced with lower gas prices. 3) Bridges &ndash;Too many bridges are beyond the point where they should have been replaced or repaired. Funding is a problem and cities need to look at alternative bridge solutions. Precast concrete is a great example, as it is usually more cost effective for the overall project, and takes far less time than conventional methods. 4) Water distribution &ndash; Typically, each month there are many water main breaks in a city, depending on the region and season. It costs cities thousands of dollars in repairs and lost water. And this does not even include the leaks that have gone undetected. Getting better control over our water distribution is critical not only from a financial perspective, but also from an environmental one. Water is our most precious commodity, so we cannot afford to lose thousands, or millions, of gallons in leaks. 5) Funding &ndash; There is never enough to handle all of the projects that need to be completed for bridges, sewers and water systems. Taxes or fees probably need to go up, but this is always a hard sell given the political climate. Communities are growing at a pace that has outpaced development for residential, commercial and transportation, and infrastructure investments need to keep pace. And alternative funding needs to be explored as some cities have found creative ways to pay for their projects. Did we miss something? We&rsquo;d love to hear from your about the challenges you are facing in your city. We&rsquo;ll also be ready to offer up some solutions to strengthen your infrastructure for the next year.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/february/06/what-infrastructure-challenges-does-your-city-face/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/february/06/what-infrastructure-challenges-does-your-city-face/Fri, 06 February 2015 11:30:35 Top 5 things we learned about underground infrastructure in 2014.Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/top-5-things-we-learned-about-underground-infrastructure-in-2014/It may be a little late to make New Year&rsquo;s resolutions, or maybe you don&rsquo;t believe in making them, but we feel it&rsquo;s a great time to point out some of the highlights from last year. We reviewed industry news, reports and expert blogs to bring you what we think you should take away from 2014. 1. Extreme weather events are showing the vulnerabilities in water and wastewater systems Rebuilding continues two years after hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in 2012. The damage was estimated at $60 billion in property damage and lost business . One of the Federal Emergency Management Agency&rsquo;s (FEMA) largest awards of $730 million to rebuild and strengthen the Bay Park Wastewater Treatment Plant. While in late December 2013, a major winter storm plunged much of Eastern US and Canada into darkness over the holiday season. Utilities scrambled to clean up icy debris off roads, restore power and get water services restored after water mains burst. Both of these major events affected infrastructure, paralyzing it for days, weeks and even months. It revealed some of the vulnerabilities in infrastructure systems including aging water pipes, run down roads and unprotected areas of coastline. 2. Water main breaks and overflows are costing billions of dollars of damage Water damage has been estimated at $3.2 billion in payouts in Canada in 2013. While this was a record year because of severe flooding in Alberta policy claims, payouts have been doubling since 2002. In the US, the numbers approached $200 billion in water damage payouts in 2011. These numbers are only increasing as infrastructure ages and larger climate events become more frequent. 3. Significant investments will be needed to address the infrastructure deficit Cities like Tampa, Denver, Phoenix, Montreal, Toronto, and many more are facing infrastructure that is between 50-100 years old&mdash;often it is reaching the end of its lifecycle and is failing. The ASCE US Infrastructure Report Card estimates that about $298 billion dollars will be needed in the next twenty years to maintain US wastewater systems alone. While, the Canadian Infrastructure Report Card estimates that there is a $39 billion deficit to bring wastewater infrastructure into line. 4. Communities are looking at alternative funding structures, including Public Private Partnerships Many argue that the infrastructure deficit needs to be addressed by alternative funding from public private partnerships (PPP). Often wastewater infrastructure is pointed to as an ideal PPP candidate due to their size and the return on investment they can give larger institutional investors. 5.Worker safety is of growing importance This year, we saw more news stories about the measures government and industry were taking to make excavations and work on underground infrastructure safer. Agreeing with said measures in our plant and in the field, we&rsquo;re proud to reflect on our accomplishments from this year and being recognized by FM Global for our attention to safety . Our Lifespan System is worker friendly as it is lighter and faster to install then most manhole systems. Because our system is roughly one third the weight of traditional manholes it helps to prevent many injuries associated with installation.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/top-5-things-we-learned-about-underground-infrastructure-in-2014/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/top-5-things-we-learned-about-underground-infrastructure-in-2014/Tue, 13 January 2015 13:30:25 Temperatures are falling and so are fuel pricesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/temperatures-are-falling-and-so-are-fuel-prices/Every freeze-thaw cycle brings your system closer to failure. Winter can expose your already stressed underground infrastructure to a whole new host of problems. This includes infiltration from melting water and added pressure of frost on older pipes, which leads to water main breaks. This chilly winter has been no exception. But the difference is Winter 2015 has afforded many municipalities significant savings on fuel costs. If your fleet is experiencing lower prices at the pump, it may be time to invest your savings in your underground infrastructure. If you are ready to translate these operational savings into an investment in watertight infrastructure we&rsquo;re ready to help. Talk to us now.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/temperatures-are-falling-and-so-are-fuel-prices/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2015/january/13/temperatures-are-falling-and-so-are-fuel-prices/Tue, 13 January 2015 10:49:45 Project Profile: Lifespan helps Kingston, ON avoid infiltration from ‘ponding’Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/project-profile-lifespan-helps-kingston-on-avoid-infiltration-from-ponding/Why treat more water than you need to during storm events? Officials from Kingston asked themselves this very question. They were faced with areas where several inches of water covered manholes during heavy storm events. Infiltration at these point sources was responsible for up to 90% of their sanitary sewer collection system&rsquo;s inflow &amp; infiltration (I&amp;I). The City of Kingston chose the Lifespan System&trade; because it offered a watertight, cost-effective solution. The only other alternatives were extensive and costly sewer rehabilitation, or no action at all which would continue to jeopardize capacity of the collection and treatment systems. Learn how we helped the City of Kingston reduce their I/I problems in the original article &ldquo;Kingston installs watertight maintenance holes, reduces I&amp;I&rdquo; (pages 32-33) in the Nov/Dec issue of Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/project-profile-lifespan-helps-kingston-on-avoid-infiltration-from-ponding/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/project-profile-lifespan-helps-kingston-on-avoid-infiltration-from-ponding/Thu, 18 December 2014 11:28:25 “60 Minutes” investigates America’s infrastructure deficitAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/60-minutes-investigates-america-s-infrastructure-deficit/Public infrastructure in America is facing a crisis. With public spending on infrastructure at its lowest levels since 1947, American bridges, airports and seaports are in danger of becoming obsolete. With one out of every nine bridges in the U.S. deemed to be structurally deficient, it is a &ldquo;tragedy waiting to happen&rdquo;. A recent &ldquo;60 Minutes&rdquo; segment investigated the current state of infrastructure in the U.S., with interviews with a former U.S. Transportation Secretary and former American Society of Civil Engineers who suggest funding from Congress is the biggest obstacle in fixing the infrastructure problem. Watch the segment on the effect of a lack of investment in infrastructure.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/60-minutes-investigates-america-s-infrastructure-deficit/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/december/18/60-minutes-investigates-america-s-infrastructure-deficit/Thu, 18 December 2014 11:02:35 Henry Flattery has been nominated to the Water’s Next 2015 Selection CommitteeAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/october/01/flattery-nominated-to-water-s-next/Our very own Henry Flattery, Director of Sustainable Market Development, has been chosen to be on the selection committee for Water&rsquo;s Next 2015. Henry considers it an honor to join 16 other water experts to help select the worthy winners in each category.. Water&rsquo;s Next 2015 is an award that recognizes leaders working in water and wastewater in Canada. This includes water champions in business, government, and academia, as well as young professionals in the field.&nbsp; Water&rsquo;s Next 2015 also selects four innovations in water technology for the award. Know a Canadian water champion? Submit your nomination before January 9, 2015. &nbsp; Learn more about the award.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/october/01/flattery-nominated-to-water-s-next/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/october/01/flattery-nominated-to-water-s-next/Wed, 01 October 2014 10:42:15 Why are watertight pipe connections gaining attention?Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/august/29/why-are-watertight-pipe-connections-gaining-attention/Large, high-profile upgrades to sanitary systems often focus on the pipe-to-pipe connections while sometimes neglecting the connections between a pipe and a manhole (maintenance hole). Pipe-to-manhole connections, while absolutely vital in a sanitary sewer system, are quite important in a stormwater system. Why should you focus on these connections?&nbsp; &nbsp; These connections can often be a very cost-effective way to target infiltration of groundwater into sanitary sewers. Prevention of this leaking can cost a few cents per gallon compared to hundreds of dollars per gallon for increasing sewer capacity or rehabilitation.&nbsp; Pipe-to-concrete connections can come in a few forms: &nbsp; Cored/Formed Hole Connectors &nbsp;&ndash; These connectors are ideal for smaller diameter pipe connections. They are flexible while meeting the most rigid standards.&nbsp; &nbsp; Cast-in Connectors&nbsp; &ndash; They come in a broad variety of configurations and sizes. They can fit pipes measuring several inches to several feet in diameter. If your connections aren&rsquo;t secure, your sanitary sewer system may end up taking on storm and groundwater, and when it reaches capacity it will overwell wastewater treatment plants, causing leaks into homes, streets and waterways.&nbsp; The consequence of leaks in your system from pipe-to-concrete leads to unhappy residents and potentially dangerous situations. When soil, sand and debris get into your storm or sanitary sewer pipes, they can reduce capacity; and that material eroding away from around manhole structures will likely lead to potholes, and possibly sinkholes &ndash; a high-profile water system losses on the&nbsp; UCLA campus &nbsp;lead to thousands of dollars of damage. If instead wastewater is leaking from your sanitary sewer system, then groundwater and surface water can become contaminated and the health of your residents can be affected.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Connections are our business. We help to make sure that the connections in your underground infrastructure are secure and watertight.&nbsp; Learn more about connecting your pipes in this&nbsp; webinar .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/august/29/why-are-watertight-pipe-connections-gaining-attention/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/august/29/why-are-watertight-pipe-connections-gaining-attention/Fri, 29 August 2014 12:05:45 Project Profile: Odor be gone! Lifespan helps Blair, NE solve their odor issues.Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/july/15/lifespan-helps-blair-solve-sewer-odor-issues/Location: Blair, NE Problem: Ongoing odor in residential neighborhoods Solution: The Lifespan System Date: March 2013 The City of Blair, NE, was faced with tough decisions when residents demanded an end to the constant odor issues that had plagued several residential neighborhoods. Several years ago, Blair installed a new sewer trunk line in anticipation of a building boom that unfortunately never happened. Consequently the sewage flow through this line is much less than expected and travels much slower than a fully active trunk line. As such the odor is much greater than normal. In their search for and consideration of several solutions, City administrators came across Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Lifespan&nbsp;System&reg; as an economical alternative to the costly mechanical and chemical fixes used to combat odor. Consisting of a gasketed rubber manhole frame and a lock-down cover, Lifespan acts as a barrier to anything getting in or out of the wastewater system. This includes odor from untreated wastewater, which is routed through residential neighbourhoods on its way to the wastewater treatment plant. Allen Schoemaker, Blair&rsquo;s Director of Public Works, noted that product experts at Hamilton Kent helped to determine the suitability of Lifespan to solve their problems and saw the opportunities in using Lifespan to combat odor. So the City decided to give it a try. After purchasing twelve 24&rdquo; Lifespan manhole units, the municipal staff installed the lightweight frames and covers themselves. Hamilton Kent experts stayed onsite to support and train staff, which Schoemaker says simplified the installations. &ldquo;The install was easily learned by our staff.&nbsp;&nbsp;In fact, after training, we were able to install all the manhole systems within three days.&rdquo; The results were immediate. Schoemaker and his staff noticed the difference when driving through the affected area. Prior to the install, the odor would be noticeable within the cab of their trucks, and now even with the windows down there is no scent of the wastewater system. As for those calls and complaints from residents? They have stopped. The City of Blair is looking forward to the expansion and continued development of this now more desirable neighbourhood. There are even plans in the works to use Lifespan in other areas within Blair to combat similar less severe odor issues. When we followed-up with Allen Schoemaker, six months later, to share his thoughts he said, &ldquo;this product has the potential to help a lot of cities, especially when you have sewers going through residential and business districts. Many times, you get a phone call from a resident saying that there is odor. It&rsquo;s nice to be able to slap a manhole cover on that, and that phone call just never happens again&mdash;because the odor stays within the sewer system.&rdquo; Has your community been affected by odor issues? Talk to our&nbsp; product experts &nbsp;to learn how Lifespan can help you solve them.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/july/15/lifespan-helps-blair-solve-sewer-odor-issues/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/july/15/lifespan-helps-blair-solve-sewer-odor-issues/Tue, 15 July 2014 10:56:15 HK is proud to announce partnerships with Ferguson and MetconAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/27/hk-announces-partnerships/The Lifespan System&reg; - availability and reach expands again. We are working with two new distributors to be able to bring your community the peace of mind that comes with eliminating inflow and infiltration issues in your water infrastructure. We&rsquo;d like take to take this opportunity to introduce you to our new partners. In the great State of Pennsylvania, we are working with&nbsp; Ferguson Waterworks .&nbsp;Ferguson is a diverse wholesale distributor with over 30 years of experience providing products for use in water infrastructure. They specialize in providing expertise and products to utility contractors, municipalities and sitework contractors. Their product offerings are expansive and they are able to deliver to your job site or warehouse, and they offer pick up from their service centers. In Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan we are working with&nbsp; Metcon Sales &amp; Engineering . They provide innovative environmental and manufacturing solutions for a wide range of industries as they have done for over 25 years. Metcon works with a diverse group of clients from the public and private sectors to help them provide safe drinking water and treated waste water. They offer turnkey solutions, maintenance and support. We encourage you to&nbsp; contact us &nbsp;to recommend a distributor in your area and get started on your next Lifespan project.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/27/hk-announces-partnerships/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/27/hk-announces-partnerships/Fri, 27 June 2014 11:47:05 The Region of Waterloo has approved the Lifespan System®!Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/25/the-region-of-waterloo-has-approved-the-lifespan-system/Hamilton Kent is proud to announce that you will be seeing more of us in the communities of Cambridge, Waterloo, Kitchener, North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich, Ontario. After thorough review by Waterloo&rsquo;s BMP Technical Committee, the Lifespan System&reg; was approved for use in the Region of Waterloo and Guelph. The Committee made the informed decision after consulting Lifespan&rsquo;s technical specifications and reviewing the projects we have completed in other municipality across the US and Canada. Wondering how Lifespan is going to work for municipalities? Check out project highlights from&nbsp; North Glengarry ,&nbsp; Mundare &nbsp;,&nbsp; Moncton , and&nbsp; Naperville .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/25/the-region-of-waterloo-has-approved-the-lifespan-system/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/june/25/the-region-of-waterloo-has-approved-the-lifespan-system/Wed, 25 June 2014 00:09:15 Improved joints eliminate leakage and extend service life of concrete box drainage systemAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/10/improved-box-culvert-joints-eliminate-leaks-extend-service-life/By Bob Folser, P.E., J&amp;G Concrete Sealing leaking joints of precast concrete boxes at the Falcon Point Golf Course in Katy, Texas has extended the service life of three of nine concrete box culverts in the storm water drainage system. Thirty-year-old precast concrete box drainage structures, installed in 1984, connect the lakes of the facility. Lake levels are controlled by a weir at the upstream end of each culvert. &nbsp; A problem with the joints was suspected about 20 years after the installation when the grade on the culvert alignments began to settle noticeably. An investigation confirmed that backfill was infiltrating the drainage system through joints where the original joint material had failed. By incorporating a rubber gasketed joint (ASTM C1677 Standard Specification for Joints for Concrete Box, Using Rubber Gaskets), this problem would have been avoided. At the time of their installation, however, the use of mastic material for a &ldquo;leak resistant&rdquo; joint was considered modern and common industry practice. &nbsp; A project was awarded to Van De Wiele &amp; Vogler, Inc. for project management, and C.E. Barker, contractor, in January, 2014 to seal the joints for $228,304.32 and thereby mitigate the infiltration of fines and settlement of the surface grade. The job of the contractor was to dry the three culverts and clean the lines so that a subcontractor could enter and seal the joints. The rehabilitation project at Falcon Point was not the first of its kind. In June, 2013 the Municipal Utility District contracted directly with a contractor to repair joints in box culverts upstream from this project. &nbsp; With the adoption of ASTM C1677 by TxDOT and other municipalities, it is clear that taxpayers will not have to incur this type of rehabilitation expense. These joints can be tested in the plant to 10 psi with specifying engineers witnessing the testing. Use of rubber gasketed joints (ASTM C1677) can prevent leaking joints. Gasketed reinforced concrete pipe and boxes are the responsible product and material for constructing resilient infrastructure that lasts for generations. &nbsp; As inventors of Tylox&reg; SuperSeal&trade; box culvert gaskets, we here at Hamilton Kent have helped many of our customers improve their box culvert joints.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/10/improved-box-culvert-joints-eliminate-leaks-extend-service-life/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/10/improved-box-culvert-joints-eliminate-leaks-extend-service-life/Thu, 10 April 2014 15:15:05 Stormwater magazine puts the spotlight on LifespanAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/08/stormwater-magazine-puts-the-spotlight-on-lifespan/A few months ago, we profiled a project with the Township of North Glengarry when they chose the Lifespa System&reg; following a severe rain event, which catalyzed addressing their wastewater system&rsquo;s existing surcharge and I/I issues. Stormwater Magazine recently profiled the municipality&rsquo;s efforts, following up with water system managers, who began piloting Lifespan on and off road in 2013. On-road, the Lifespan system was able to take a beating from traffic, while supporting underlying road structures. In off-road applications, the system prevented extraneous water from entering the system during flooding events from a nearby creek. To learn more about how Lifespan helped North Glengarry eliminate I/I, read the full article .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/08/stormwater-magazine-puts-the-spotlight-on-lifespan/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/april/08/stormwater-magazine-puts-the-spotlight-on-lifespan/Tue, 08 April 2014 12:17:45 Hamilton Kent gets recognized for safetyAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/26/hk-recognized-for-safety/Earlier in March, Hamilton Kent was awarded the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) rating from our property insurer, FM Global. The HPR is given to organizations for their ongoing commitment to safety and prevention of property loss. &nbsp; The award was presented in separate ceremonies at both our Toronto, ON and Winchester, TN manufacturing plants. &nbsp; FM Global engineering staff visits our locations regularly to evaluate hazards and recommend improvements to our property and work practices. We always take their recommendations seriously in order to reduce physical and financial risks, as well as ensure uninterrupted service for our customers. &nbsp; Hamilton Kent is not sharing this news to toot our own horn. Rather, we want our customers to see we are creating a safer place for our employees to work, and we are taking all the steps necessary to provide steady supply of our products for the long term. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; We want to acknowledge the outstanding effort and support provided by the following people, without whom this achievement would not have been possible: &nbsp; -The direction from our Plant Managers, Patrick van den Berg (Toronto) and Michael Antras (Winchester) &nbsp; -The expertise of our Maintenance Supervisors, Lloyd Green (Toronto) and Lloyd Rogers (Winchester), and our EHS Coordinator, Alexis Weir &nbsp; -The exceptional engineering support from our Manager Safety and Environment Technical Services, Farid Danial &nbsp; Thank you all for your commitment and achievements. &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/26/hk-recognized-for-safety/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/26/hk-recognized-for-safety/Wed, 26 March 2014 16:07:45 Lifespan defers costly sewer upgrades in Moncton, New BrunswickAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/10/lifespan-defers-costly-moncton-sewer-upgrades/During storm events, your municipality&rsquo;s underground infrastructure can take a beating. If it is already stressed due to outstripped development or it is nearing its end of lifecycle, storm events can serve to exacerbate the problem. The City of Moncton is frequented by storm events and its infrastructure has been playing catch-up to the growth the city has experienced over the last few years. &nbsp; After an underground infrastructure audit, the City of Moncton learned that extraneous flows were having a limiting effect on the capacity of their sewers. They pin-pointed the issue and found that the culprit was off-road and rural manholes. These manholes are often located below grade and the inflow and infiltration (I/I) was especially a problem during storm events or spring melts. &nbsp; Moncton was able to avoid and defer construction and expansion of existing sewers by targeting exiting manholes and replacing them with the Hamilton Kent Lifespan System. &nbsp; The Lifespan System has given the city of Moncton a turnkey watertight seal with no I/I. It has also allowed the city to save, not only the cost of construction of additional sewers, but also costs associated with inflow. &nbsp; To learn about additional benefits Lifespan brought to the City of Moncton read the full article: Cost-effective off-road I&amp;I reduction in Public Works Magazine.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/10/lifespan-defers-costly-moncton-sewer-upgrades/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/march/10/lifespan-defers-costly-moncton-sewer-upgrades/Mon, 10 March 2014 11:37:45 The importance of micromonitoring for reducing I/IAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/february/03/importance-of-micromonitoring/So your municipality has inflow and infiltration (I/I) problems, and you&rsquo;re planning to rehabilitate your sanitary sewer pipelines or manholes to correct the problem. &nbsp; As underground infrastructure suppliers, Hamilton Kent is happy to help you with this. But because we care about helping to solve your problems, we want to offer some advice before you invest a lot of money in replacing or rehabilitating your infrastructure. &nbsp; It&rsquo;s this: consider micromonitoring your sanitary sewer system flow. &nbsp; Developed by Stantec Consulting Services , micromonitoring is a flow monitoring process that zeros in on specific areas where I/I is occurring. Once found, it eliminates the need and cost to continue monitoring (and rehabilitating) unnecessary touch points. &nbsp; In some cases, micromonitoring has saved 80% of monitored sites from further testing and rehabilitation, using data collected after only a couple of rain events. &nbsp; Interestingly, micromonitoring can identify whether the problem is an infiltration issue or an inflow issue, which helps in planning and budgeting repairs and rehabilitation methods more accurately. &nbsp; What exactly are Micromonitors and how do they work?&nbsp; &nbsp; According to Stantec Micromonitor designer John Barton&rsquo;s article in Public Works (2011): &nbsp; &ldquo; Micromonitors are fabricated fiberglass weir inserts installed behind standard area-velocity probes. The weir insert has a defined rating curve. At very low levels the weir is used as a primary device. If flow exceeds the limit of the weir's rating curve, the continuity equation is used to calculate the flow from the level-velocity data. The addition of the weir conditions the flow over the probe to prevent obstruction by debris, enabling the Micromonitor to measure flows down to 1.0 gallons per minute (gpm) &mdash; generally in low-flow sewer segments like those with only a few houses.&nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;The device is installed with a street-level insertion tool, eliminating issues related to Occupational Safety &amp; Health Administration confined space entry (CSE) requirements. Thus the Micromonitors efficiently adapt existing equipment and open up a new approach for pinpointing inflow and infiltration in upstream segments.&nbsp; &nbsp; &ldquo;Without the need for permitted installation, rapid deployment is the hallmark of the micromonitoring approach. One person can remove Micromonitors from at least eight sites, download the data, change the batteries, recalibrate the meter, and install Micromonitors in eight new sites in one workday.&rdquo; &nbsp; Read the whole article here: Low-impact inflow/infiltration investigation &nbsp; For utilities and municipalities looking to get the most from their budgets and their data (while reducing inconvenience to property owners), we suggest looking into use of micromonitoring. &nbsp; Once you have a good idea of what you need to replace and rehabilitate in your sanitary sewer systems, please do give Hamilton Kent a call. &nbsp; Helpful articles on micromonitoring &nbsp; A new way to target I/I (Municipal Sewer and Water Magazine) &nbsp; Micrometering for Better Management (Water and Wastes Digest) &nbsp; Full disclosure: This article is not at all sponsored by Stantec. It is for informational purposes only.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/february/03/importance-of-micromonitoring/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/february/03/importance-of-micromonitoring/Mon, 03 February 2014 11:31:55 Lifespan is Sustainable for Workers, Not Just Water.Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/january/16/lifespan-is-sustainable/According to the Ontario-based 2012 Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Statistical Report , 86% of injury insurance claims were due to sprains and strains (50%), low back injury (18%) and overexertion (18%). &nbsp; In the construction industry, these injuries &mdash; all of which are musculoskeletal injuries (MI) &mdash; amount to huge time loss, not to mention the cost of replacing the employee until he or she returns. Causes of MI are varied. Often, injury results from repeatedly performing a demanding or straining task, such as lifting, stretching, reaching or twisting. &nbsp; As manufacturers of The Lifespan System &reg; , our watertight rubber manhole frame with an optional composite cover, Hamilton Kent ensured all of the above was taken into account when the system was designed. &nbsp; The average manhole frame weighs between 250lbs and 300lbs. That&rsquo;s a lot of weight to manage by hand, and workers can easily injure their backs and fingers when lifting and installing cast-iron manhole frames and covers. &nbsp; The Lifespan System frame and two adjustment risers are easy to handle, weighing only 96lbs total&mdash;roughly one third of traditional frames. In addition to being safer and more ergonomically friendly, the relatively lightweight system is quicker and easier to install. &nbsp; The ease of handling of the Lifespan System is especially important when crews need to rehabilitate manhole frames in easements and environmentally sensitive areas. In areas where crews can&rsquo;t or aren&rsquo;t allowed to bring in heavy equipment, two crewmembers can easily carry in this 60lb composite cover and 55lb frame by hand in one trip (with another trip for their tools). No cranes or hoists needed, and no injuries to be had! &nbsp; For maximum safety, Hamilton Kent still recommends that two crewmembers install the Lifespan frame together.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/january/16/lifespan-is-sustainable/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2014/january/16/lifespan-is-sustainable/Thu, 16 January 2014 14:19:45 Hamilton Kent project in Concrete Pipe NewsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/december/03/hamilton-kent-project-in-concrete-pipe-news/Hamilton Kent is excited to that our gaskets are featured in the latest edition of Concrete Pipe News. The story is entitled "Complex Drainage Improvement Project Demonstrates the Versatility of Gasketed Precast Concrete Boxes". The article highlights a gasketed box culvert project in Lubbock, Texas. The precast concrete box drainage system was required for FEMA re-mapping to remove 1,262 existing drainage structures from 100-year Special Flood Hazard Areas. The project includes 177 feet of 15-foot x 7-foot, and 11,031 feet of 10-foot x 10-foot reinforced concrete boxes for construction of a storm sewer outlet. The City of Lubbock will spend over $70 million on this multi-stage project. Click here and turn to Page 7 to read the story.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/december/03/hamilton-kent-project-in-concrete-pipe-news/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/december/03/hamilton-kent-project-in-concrete-pipe-news/Tue, 03 December 2013 12:28:55 NCDOT inaugurates Lifespan as Approved ProductAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/november/25/ncdot-approves-lifespan/Hamilton Kent is excited to announce that the Lifespan System&reg; &mdash;our watertight, rubber manhole system&mdash;is now an official North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Approved Product. As a department, the NCDOT conducts business with hundreds of vendors and contractors every year, whose products are used in the different stages of road and highway construction. Needless to say, Hamilton Kent is honored that our Lifespan System&reg; has been recognized as a safe, sustainable and effective product. To look us up, and to review other NCDOT approved products, check out the website here . Read more about the Lifespan System here. &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/november/25/ncdot-approves-lifespan/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/november/25/ncdot-approves-lifespan/Mon, 25 November 2013 11:33:15 Water management: North America’s next major priorityAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/october/08/water-north-america-s-next-priority/Depending on where you live, water scarcity can seem like a far-removed problem. Something that occurs in another part of the world.&nbsp; &nbsp; In actuality, there are thousands of North American counties that are dealing with water shortage at an increasing rate. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found that more than 1,100 U.S. counties face water shortages. Of those, 400 are in the &ldquo;extreme risk&rdquo; category, representing a 14x increase over previous estimates. The Canadian Prairies are also facing water scarcity; residents in Saskatchewan are wondering where their water will come from when the Rocky Mountain glaciers are gone. Even communities in the Great Lakes Basin are drawing up plans to plumb pipes and tap the lakes. As regions across the northwestern hemisphere anticipate hotter and dryer seasons due to climate change, water supplies will likely be less abundant and less reliable. When you couple that with water demands for landscaping, agricultural irrigation and industrial processes&mdash;not to mention population growth and urbanization&mdash;it seems water will become the new oil. At Hamilton Kent, we believe water management is one of the most important priorities our communities should have. That&rsquo;s why one of our focuses is on offering a suite of watertight infrastructure products used in water conveyance. If water is becoming a scarce resource&mdash;which it is&mdash;we wantto make sure the water we do have is not wasted by leaking out of underground pipes. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers(ASCE),&nbsp;leaking pipes lose an estimated 7 billion gallons of clean drinking water every single day&mdash;the equivalent of over 11,000 Olympic-size swimming pools! It goes without saying that this is too much. More importantly, it&rsquo;s completely unsustainable in a country where it&rsquo;s estimated that we&rsquo;ll experience water shortages equal to the needs of 4-12 million families of four by 2020 (ASCE). Click here to learn more about our watertight products . Or contact us to talk more about how our underground infrastructure solutions can help to manage your water.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/october/08/water-north-america-s-next-priority/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/october/08/water-north-america-s-next-priority/Tue, 08 October 2013 13:55:15 Materials suppliers: Let’s help create disaster-resilient citiesAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/september/04/let-s-create-disaster-resilient-cities/Since the devastation of Hurricane Sandy in October 2012, &ldquo;disaster-resilience&rdquo; has become a headlining topic all over North American news. Its prevalence has only increased with reports of heavy rains, flooding, tornados, droughts, earthquakes and other extreme weather events around the world. These events have cost governments, citizens and insurance companies billions of dollars. And according to the scientific community, it will only get worse. Severe weather is said to increase in both frequency and impact, as temperatures and sea levels rise. &nbsp; Over the past several months, talk of disaster-resilient cities has drawn much-needed attention to our aging infrastructure. As it stands, the American Society of Civil Engineers has given United States infrastructure a D+ grade, estimating costs at $3.6 trillion just to repair our systems&mdash;to say nothing of bolstering them for future disasters. &nbsp; Though the situation is disappointing, it seems the publicity has been positive. No longer able to deprioritize the issue, many governments have starting committing to invest more heavily in repairing infrastructure in preparation for the future&mdash;whatever it may bring. &nbsp; In his recent climate-policy speech, President Obama noted the United States will need much &ldquo;more resilient infrastructure&hellip; stronger sea walls, natural barriers, hardened power grids, hardened water systems, hardened fuel supplies.&rdquo; Obama went on to say that the federal government would allow access to its climate data, so that regional governments can assess risk under different climate scenarios and not &ldquo;waste money building structures that don&rsquo;t withstand the next storm.&rdquo; This last point is where we feel that we&mdash;Hamilton Kent, and all infrastructure materials suppliers&mdash;have a clear responsibility. &nbsp; &nbsp; Though the buck may legally stop with governments, we are accountable to our customers and the communities in which we operate to help create disaster-resilient infrastructure. If we don&rsquo;t want decision-makers wasting money on structures that will fail, we need to ensure that we are designing durable and high-performance products built to withstand extreme circumstances. &nbsp; We believe this responsibility is especially critical for those companies&mdash;like us&mdash;that create products for water management systems. During significant weather events, a water management system&rsquo;s resilience can mean the difference between temporary inconveniences and serious health and environmental consequences. &nbsp; In rising to the challenge and taking our roles seriously to help create disaster-resilient cities, we also see a worthwhile business opportunity for materials suppliers. Engineering more durable, higher-performance infrastructure products will position innovative companies as leading-edge suppliers, and lead to more business. &nbsp; There are no one-size-fits-all answers to what disaster-resilience looks like. It&rsquo;s a relatively new concern, and no city is the same. The future will no doubt hold much stakeholder debate about budgets and planning. At the end of the day, however, we believe one thing is clear: infrastructure materials suppliers can and should be a part of the solution. &nbsp; Where do we start? Let&rsquo;s begin by talking about our roles, exchanging ideas about our challenges and strengths, and by making disaster-resilience a priority in our research and development. &nbsp; Let&rsquo;s discover how we can engineer infrastructure to withstand catastrophic events&mdash;natural, climate change-driven, and man-made&mdash;and to be able to bounce back more quickly and maybe even stronger than before. &nbsp; Join our LinkedIn discussion group: ow.ly/pdsmkhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/september/04/let-s-create-disaster-resilient-cities/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/september/04/let-s-create-disaster-resilient-cities/Wed, 04 September 2013 11:00:25 The cost of improper manhole cover installationAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/august/23/the-cost-of-improper-manhole-cover-installation/On July 17, 2013, a manhole cover flew into a woman&rsquo;s windshield as she was driving. According to the Farmington Police Department, a tractor-trailer drove over the manhole cover, splitting it and causing part of it to fly into the woman&rsquo;s vehicle. Fortunately, she only suffered minor injuries. &nbsp; The police suspect the manhole cover was not properly fitted into the manhole. &nbsp; Read the full story here . &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; At Hamilton Kent, we often stress the importance of a watertight seal for sustainability and cost efficiency. But there are other worthwhile reasons to ensure a tight and secure fit on your manhole cover. One such reason is public safety. &nbsp; Whether it&rsquo;s due to theft, extreme weather, storm system over-capacity or improper installation, misplaced manhole covers or, in this case, flying manhole covers are serious safety issues. &nbsp; With that in mind, Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s&nbsp; Lifespan System&reg; has been designed with an all-or-nothing installation approach. Our manhole system&mdash;featuring a cast-iron or composite cover and an ultra high-performance rubber frame&mdash;uses the SHURE-LOK alignment system to ensure proper installation and locking of the cover to the frame. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; This is accomplished using a tab on the manhole cover and a corresponding notch in the frame, so the cover can only be installed in the correct orientation. &nbsp; The Lifespan System cover is then locked down to the frame using theft-resistant bolted lugs for added security. &nbsp; For more information, read our previous post, &ldquo;When manhole covers go missing&rdquo; .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/august/23/the-cost-of-improper-manhole-cover-installation/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/august/23/the-cost-of-improper-manhole-cover-installation/Fri, 23 August 2013 10:56:45 Project profile: Reinventing the box culvertAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/april/15/reinventing-box-culvert/Like many cities lying in the Texas flatlands, Lubbock relies on playa lakes to collect and hold its stormwater runoff. This system works well during normal rain events however, when subjected to heavy rainfall, the lakes have a tendency to overflow and drain through the city, causing residential flooding and traffic delays. &nbsp; The City of Lubbock decided the best solution to this problem was to create an underground stormwater transfer system between playa lakes &ndash; but that meant building right through the city at depths of between 32 and 38 feet. &nbsp; This project would have been very disruptive and expensive, if it weren&rsquo;t for the ingenuity of the consulting engineer. Instead of creating several open cuts and building cast-in-place tunnel segments, hundreds of precast box culvert sections would be used. &nbsp; The boxes were designed to fit with Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s pre-lubricated SuperSeal&trade; gaskets to ensure a watertight seal between sections. On the job site, some of the box sections were lowered into deep pits one at a time and then jacked together into an excavated tunnel. In some locations, an open trench was used by the contractor, wherein the segments were lowered into place and then pulled together hydraulically. &nbsp; A condition of the project was a physical joint and structure test, consisting of a hydrostatic test of 13psi, which needed to be held with no leaks for 48 hours. This test is so extreme that the tested box sections had to be buried to simulate job-site conditions and ensure that the pressure did not damage the structures. The gasketed box sections met these rigorous standards. &nbsp; By finding a new way to use gasketed box sections to address the City&rsquo;s concerns, the project is taking less time to complete and doesn&rsquo;t require nearly as much open cutting, saving the city&rsquo;s residents and businesses from disruptive road closures and the accompanying inconveniences. As well, the consulting engineer and the manufacturer were able to reduce the overall cost and still deliver superior performance. &nbsp; &nbsp; As we noted in last month&rsquo;s blog post, we are pleased to see new and innovative applications for precast box sections, especially when they can help cities and municipalities reduce project costs and address the infrastructure deficit. &nbsp; For more information about the new ASTM standard for precast box sections, click here to read our March 2013 blog post. &nbsp; To view a video of a hydrostatic test, click here. &nbsp; Book a lunch and learn at your company to learn more about Hamilton Kent connectors for precast box sections by contacting us.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/april/15/reinventing-box-culvert/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/april/15/reinventing-box-culvert/Mon, 15 April 2013 10:35:55 A bigger future for precast box sections?Roman Selighttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/28/a-bigger-future-for-precast-box-sections/&nbsp; &nbsp; As inventors of Tylox&reg; SuperSeal&trade; box culvert gaskets, we here at Hamilton Kent are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about all the different ways a precast box section can be used. But while its application in culverts, storm drains and sewers is well known, box section applications such as pedestrian tunnels, lift stations, wet wells and animal crossings are not. ; ; This is set to change with the introduction of the new ASTM International standard C1675, Practice for Installation of Precast Reinforced Concrete Monolithic Box Sections for Culverts, Storm Drains, and Sewers, developed by Subcommittee C13.05 on Special Projects, part of ASTM International Committee C13 on Concrete Pipe. &nbsp; This new standard will serve two important purposes: the first, to promote the correct installation of precast box sections and the second, to increase awareness of the product&rsquo;s many applications. &nbsp; &nbsp; As I noted in the Jan/Feb issue of ASTM Standardization News, a uniform and consistent installation method not only will allow people to better understand box sections and how to use them, but it also benefits those who already use them regularly. &nbsp; &nbsp; While precast box sections are recognized for their efficiency and ease of installation, Hamilton Kent makes that process even easier with our Tylox&reg; SuperSealTM pre-lubricated gaskets used in conjunction with a single offset joint. Placed on the boxes by the manufacturer, these gaskets make the installation as easy as lowering the box section into position and then homing it. No more worries about gasket-installation errors or messy, time-consuming butyl or external wrap. &nbsp; &nbsp; To see how easy a Tylox SuperSealTM gasket makes a box section installation, check out this video. To download other resources, please visit www.hamiltonkent.com. &nbsp; &nbsp; Sell sheet:&nbsp; Tylox&reg; SuperSealTM Pre-lubricated Profile Gaskets for Single Offset Joints on Concrete Box Culverts &nbsp; &nbsp; ASTM C1675: Purchase here &nbsp; &nbsp; Roman Selig is a National Accounts Manager - Concrete Products for Hamilton Kent. Not only does Roman serve on ASTM Committee C-13 for Concrete Pipe , but he is also the chairman of ASTM Subcommittee C13.05 and serves on ASTM Subcommittees C13.04, C13.07 and C13.09.&nbsp;Roman can be reached at roman.selig@hamiltonkent.com if you have questions about the new standard or&nbsp;Hamilton Kent's&nbsp; Tylox&reg; SuperSealTM Pre-lubricated Profile Gaskets for box culverts . &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/28/a-bigger-future-for-precast-box-sections/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/28/a-bigger-future-for-precast-box-sections/Thu, 28 February 2013 15:26:25 North Glengarry addresses I/I with Lifespan®Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/04/north-glengarry-addresses-inflow/&nbsp; It&rsquo;s a situation that towns across Canada and the U.S. are facing with increasing frequency: yesterday&rsquo;s infrastructure no longer supports today&rsquo;s population. Although system overcapacity was a known problem for the Township of North Glengarry, Ontario, the severity of the issue was starkly illustrated last summer when the town got hit with a &ldquo;one-in-50-years&rdquo; storm. In only an hour, North Glengarry and surrounding areas received a whopping 150 to 200 mm (6 to 8 inches) of rain, completely overwhelming the storm water system and causing sewer backups in nine residents&rsquo; homes. Although only partially caused by manhole-related I/I &ndash; as Mayor Chris McDonell noted, no storm water system is built to handle that kind of deluge &ndash; the surcharge crisis was indicative of problems related to the town&rsquo;s 50-to-60-year-old infrastructure. In researching solutions for its I/I-related overcapacity problems, North Glengarry Water Works Manager Dean McDonald discovered the Lifespan System at an event hosted by the Centre for Advancement of Trenchless Technologies at the University of Waterloo. Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Director of Sustainable Markets, Henry Flattery, was a featured presenter at the event, sharing the benefits of The Lifespan System&reg;for addressing I/I. Convinced that Lifespan could make a difference where other manhole systems had failed, McDonald contacted Flattery immediately following the seminar, ordering eight units for implementation over the next year. &ldquo;I immediately thought, &lsquo;This is great!&rsquo;&rdquo; remembers McDonald. &ldquo;The manholes we were using at the time were okay but once you opened them, they weren&rsquo;t watertight anymore because the design wasn&rsquo;t practical. &ldquo;Lifespan is one of a kind,&rdquo; McDonald continues. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d never heard of frames built out of rubber, but they are working great &ndash; they&rsquo;ve been holding up really well this winter. We&rsquo;ve had zero issues.&rdquo; Four of the Lifespan units were designated for on-road use and four &ndash; to be installed in spring 2013 &ndash; were designated for off-road use near a very active creek. These are particularly critical units for controlling I/I, McDonald says, because the city neither wants the creek&rsquo;s frequent overflows to contribute to the city&rsquo;s overcapacity problems, nor for the overcapacity problems to cause contamination of the creek. Thanks to its watertight design, Lifespan fit the bill perfectly, with the added benefit of being lightweight for easy carrying to the job site, and easy to install. &ldquo;The ease of installing them was a huge benefit,&rdquo; McDonald says. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re so much easier to install because they are so lightweight. And when we have to open them up, it&rsquo;s much easier to close them up. They are really user friendly and the operators are happy with them too.&rdquo;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/04/north-glengarry-addresses-inflow/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/february/04/north-glengarry-addresses-inflow/Mon, 04 February 2013 10:18:35 Hamilton Kent featured in Western Canada Water magazineAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/january/02/hk-in-western-canada-water/&nbsp; We love doing business in Western Canada and have helped many municipalities in B.C. and Alberta keep their wastewater collection systems watertight. &nbsp; So it was with great pleasure that we said &ldquo;yes&rdquo; when Western Canada Water asked us to be a part of their Winter 2012 issue. Covering two pages, the first page features an overview of Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s business, including our gaskets and expansion seals, and the second page discusses our innovative Lifespan System&reg;. &nbsp; We&rsquo;d like to take the opportunity to thank Western Canada Water for including us in their Winter issue and helping us to connect with water professionals across Canada. &nbsp; You can download a PDF of the Hamilton Kent articles here. &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/january/02/hk-in-western-canada-water/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2013/january/02/hk-in-western-canada-water/Wed, 02 January 2013 10:44:15 Pardeep Sharma receives ASTM C-13 awardAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/november/13/sharma-receives-astm-award/&nbsp; Since becoming a member of ASTM International in 2000, Pardeep has been actively involved with the committee and with several C13 subcommittees. Currently, he is in the midst of four years of service as vice chairman for subcommittee C13.04. In addition to his service to ASTM Committee C-13, Pardeep is also a member of ASTM Committees C27, F17 and F36, and is actively involved with the Canadian Standards Association (CSA International), the American Concrete Pipe Association, and the National Precast Concrete Association. Pardeep joined Hamilton Kent in 1983, after graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in Industrial Engineering. He has held various positions within Hamilton Kent and has since become a Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario, Canada, and taken over responsibility for all technical and quality service for the company. &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/november/13/sharma-receives-astm-award/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/november/13/sharma-receives-astm-award/Tue, 13 November 2012 11:51:15 Mundare locks down local manhole coversAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/october/16/mundare-locks-down-local-manhole-covers/&nbsp; This summer, Mundare took a major step towards a safer and more secure water treatment system with a rehabilitation project for local manholes. &nbsp; Over the past year, Mundare Public Works supervisor Terry Zapf noticed a significant problem occuring: unauthorized parties were removing manhole covers and dumping effluent material into the Mundare wastewater treatment stream. &nbsp; In addition to the safety concerns represented by the unauthorized access, the dumping had the potential to spill into the nearby treatment lagoon, resulting in undue strain on the wastewater treatment system. &nbsp; Zapf knew rehabilitation of the problem manholes with traditional cast-iron frames and covers was not the answer: a more innovative solution was needed. &nbsp; Mundare&rsquo;s mayor, Mike Saric, found that solution at the 2012 Federation of Canadian Municipalities Sustainable Communities Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, where we introduced him to the Lifespan System&reg;, our unique rubber manhole frame and cover system. &nbsp; Installed this summer by Zapf and Operators Don Kucheraway and Lawrence Rozumniak, Lifespan solved two significant problems for Mundare Public Works. Firstly, the its locking lid prevents unauthorized access to the manhole. Secondly, the Lifespan frame and lid are watertight, which prevents rainwater from entering the collection system through the top of the manhole. Since Mundare has a separate sanitary system, a watertight solution is essential. &nbsp; Another benefit is that Mundare will not need to upgrade its lift stations. The reduction in inflow will allow them to operate without having to increase capacity, therefore reducing potential capital expenditures. &nbsp; In addition, the system is made of rubber, which is not adversely affected by sewer gases or road salt and is considerably less attractive to thieves, who covet cast-iron covers for their scrap value. &nbsp; The rehabilitation of the Mundare manhole frames and covers is a big win for the Public Works department, which no longer has to worry about illegal dumping of effluent materials into the wastewater system or upgrading its lift stations to handle the extra capacity. In fact, Mundare now has an extra revenue stream as septic operators wishing to access the wastewater system legally must now pay a fee based on volume. &nbsp; &nbsp; Pictured in top photo, from right to left: Terry Zapf, Public Works Supervisor and Operators Don Kucheraway and Lawrence Rozumniak. For more photos from the Mundare installation, please see the gallery below: &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/october/16/mundare-locks-down-local-manhole-covers/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/october/16/mundare-locks-down-local-manhole-covers/Tue, 16 October 2012 12:53:55 A watertight solution for WSSCAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/september/19/a-watertight-solution-for-wssc/The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission ( WSSC ) is the eighth largest water and wastewater utility in the nation, with a network of more than 5,400 miles of sewer pipeline and 5,500 miles of fresh water pipeline serving 1.8 million residents in Prince George&rsquo;s and Montgomery counties in Maryland since 1918. &nbsp; Part of this vast network is located in beautiful, environmentally sensitive Maryland woodlands, so when Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) occur, it is especially serious. &nbsp; The Maryland counties&rsquo; SSO problems were brought to the forefront when WSSC entered into an SSO-specific consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency , the Maryland Department of the Environment and the U.S. Department of Justice . &nbsp; In response to the decree, the WSSC developed a Sewer Basin Repair, Replacement and Rehabilitation Plan (SR3) to identify and repair areas contributing to SSOs. &nbsp; As part of the plan, WSSC conducted a Flow Monitoring and Collection System Modeling, finding that access points from manholes have been a major contributor of inflow and infiltration (I/I), particularly during rain events. &nbsp; Complicating the problem was that the SR3 plan includes 24 environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs), some of which contain manholes requiring rehabilitation or replacement. Permits and access to these areas is problematic and due to restricted vehicle access, the replacement manhole systems had to be light enough for crews to carry in by hand. &nbsp; Clearly, an innovative solution was needed. &nbsp; In order to meet its existing spec for ESAs, as well as the mandate set out in the SR3, WSSC selected The&nbsp;Lifespan&nbsp;System as its manhole frame and cover system of choice. WSSC selected Lifespan for a variety of reasons: firstly, the repairs had to be executed with minimal tree clearing and ground disturbance. Lifespan&rsquo;s rubber frame and lid were light enough for crews to hand-carry into the wooded areas, reducing the need for vehicle access. Secondly, the solution had to be watertight, not just water-resistant. Lifespan&rsquo;s locking mechanism not only creates a watertight seal between the lid and the frame, but also helps ensure the lids will remain securely in place long-term, a bonus for manholes located in remote areas. And finally, the solution was expected to prevent surcharge into the ESAs. The Lifespan System&reg; is securely bolted and sealed to the manhole structure itself. In combination with the watertight frame and lid, it is a sure-fire strategy for eliminating surcharge. As you can see in the gallery below, the wooded areas where the ESAs are located are quite scenic. We think Lifespan does the landscape justice quite nicely &ndash; but what can we say, we&rsquo;re the proud parents! &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Related content: "Does your submarine have a screen door?" Join Hamilton Kent's Henry Flattery as he explains how Lifespan can help solve I/I problems associated with traditional manhole systems. &nbsp;http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/september/19/a-watertight-solution-for-wssc/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/september/19/a-watertight-solution-for-wssc/Wed, 19 September 2012 11:32:55 When manhole covers go missing!Alan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/june/22/when-manhole-covers-go-missing/As any long-time underground infrastructure manager knows, manhole covers can be involved in some pretty strange news stories. And these stories often have a common theme &ndash; chaos caused when manhole covers go missing. &nbsp; Often, these failures are caused by natural disaster. For example, this Associated Press story from May 20, 2012 describes the almost $6000 in damage to local manhole access systems that occurred when a record-breaking tornado touched down in Joplin, Missouri last year, sucking a number of area&rsquo;s manhole covers right out of their frames. &nbsp; On the opposite side of the disaster equation is overflow due to overcapacity. This Montreal Gazette article recounts the damage done to the city&rsquo;s sewer system after a sudden and severe rainstorm on May 29, 2012. In a storm that saw 46 millimetres of rain fall in 40 minutes, the city&rsquo;s (aging) sewer system reached its capacity in minutes, turning manhole covers &ldquo;into projectiles and basements into wading pools.&rdquo; More troubling are the scores of stories online detailing the theft of manhole covers for scrap, a problem that seems to be increasing in frequency for municipalities all over North America. &nbsp; "Typically, we're missing three to four manhole covers per month and sometimes we're up to six or seven," said Ron Labelle, commissioner of New Bedford, Massachusetts&rsquo; Department of Public Infrastructure, in a May 30, 2012 Standard Times article . "It's a big problem for us." &nbsp; Or this story from Casa Grande, Arizona, where police in May arrested two men suspected of stealing 90 manhole covers worth an estimated $12,000. In this case, a witness had the foresight to film the two men in action, so the police could execute a search warrant and ultimately book them into jail for the crime. &nbsp; These incidents not only cost municipalities a lot of money, they are a significant public safety threat, and are responsible for major traffic problems, such as this recent story from Pittsburgh in which a missing manhole cover (suspected to be stolen) snarled local traffic for hours. &nbsp; To combat rising thefts, some municipalities are seeking to address the demand side of the equation, such as Surrey, British Columbia, which has passed new legislation requiring scrap dealers to record the ID of sellers and share purchase details daily with local police. In the UK, Scotland and Britain have joined forces to combat metal theft , estimated to &ldquo;cost the UK economy up to an estimated &pound;770 million a year.&rdquo; &nbsp; At Hamilton Kent, we&rsquo;d humbly like to suggest an additional solution that not only deters theft, but helps protect against failures caused by natural or manmade disaster: our patented Lifespan System&reg; . &nbsp; The Lifespan System features a cast-iron cover and an ultra high-performance rubber frame, which can be locked together using theft-resistant bolted lugs. The Lifespan System&rsquo;s high-performance design also makes for more rugged, long-lasting performance, so that failures due to inflow or infiltration are less likely to occur. &nbsp; For more information about eliminating inflow and infiltration in manhole covers and frames , watch this video hosted by Henry Flattery, Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s director of sustainable market development.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/june/22/when-manhole-covers-go-missing/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/june/22/when-manhole-covers-go-missing/Fri, 22 June 2012 15:09:05 The real impact of failed manhole coversAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/may/14/impact-of-failed-manhole-covers/&nbsp; More Sharing Services The numbers are staggering. &nbsp; In April, a local newspaper in Canal Winchester, Ohio reported that a single failure in the city&rsquo;s sewer system resulted in almost 1 million extra gallons of water being pumped through one of its stations every day. &nbsp; The failure was a broken manhole cover in a nearby peat bog, which had become overgrown with vegetation and was tough to access. City officials discovered the leak after a severe rainstorm, when they realized the city was pumping 3 million gallons a day instead of its standard 1 or 2 million. &nbsp; &ldquo;We found that gap was letting in 700,000 to 800,000 gallons of water a day,&rdquo; the city&rsquo;s water reclamation manager, Steve Smith, recalled in The Canal Winchester Times story. &nbsp; This story really caught our attention here at Hamilton Kent. Sometimes we feel like a broken record, repeating the negative effects of failed manhole frame systems over and over again. &nbsp; But when you consider it takes approximately 1000 kilowatt hours (kWh) to convey and treat 1 million gallons of water, and that each kWh pushes about a pound of CO 2 into our skies, you can see that infrastructure problems can have serious environmental consequences. &nbsp; And considering that up to 50% of the extraneous water that enters sanitary collection systems does so through the top of the manhole, you can see how the situation described here is illustrative of the wider impact a single manhole frame failure can have. &nbsp; Of course, it would be remiss of us not to say that the risk of having to remediate failed manhole covers or frames can be reduced by investing in high-quality materials from the start. &nbsp; If you&rsquo;re interested in learning more about this, check out our patented Lifespan System , which is a watertight, corrosion-proof, rubber manhole frame and locking lid system that prevents rain-derived inflow from entering sanitary sewers through the top of the manhole. &nbsp; Don&rsquo;t let one bad manhole reduce the effectiveness of your sewer system! Watch this video webinar to find out more about common sources of inflow and infiltration in sewer systems and to see how we make bad manholes good. &nbsp; Photo: Archival Image / Hamilton Kenthttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/may/14/impact-of-failed-manhole-covers/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2012/may/14/impact-of-failed-manhole-covers/Mon, 14 May 2012 10:03:45 The Lifespan System® featured in Trenchless Technology magazineAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/november/01/lifespan-featured-in-trenchless-tech-mag/An article about the successful use of The Lifespan System&reg; by the City of Naperville, IL, was featured in Trenchless Technology magazine. Read why city officials selected Lifespan and how it has been working for them over the past few years. To view the article,&nbsp;&nbsp; click here . To learn more about Lifespan, visit the product web page .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/november/01/lifespan-featured-in-trenchless-tech-mag/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/november/01/lifespan-featured-in-trenchless-tech-mag/Tue, 01 November 2011 15:23:25 Roman J. Selig Receives ASTM International Award of MeritAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/october/26/roman-j-selig-receives-astm-international-award-of-merit/ASTM International Committee C13 on Concrete Pipe has presented the Award of Merit to Roman J. Selig III, national accounts manager at Hamilton Kent LLC in Birmingham, Ala. The Award of Merit and its accompanying title of fellow is ASTM&rsquo;s highest organizational recognition for individual contributions to standards activities. A member of ASTM International since 1993, Selig works on several C13 subcommittees and is chairman of Subcommittee C13.05 on Special Projects . The committee recognized his outstanding technical contributions with the Merlin G. &ldquo;IB&rdquo; Spangler Award in 2003. Selig joined Hamilton Kent in 2010. Prior to that, he was director of marketing and engineering at Sherman Industries in their Alabama and Georgia offices, and a technical resource engineer at Hanson Pipe and Precast in Birmingham, Ala. He also worked as an area manager at Caldwell Culvert Co. in Shreveport, La., and as a sales engineer at the American Cast Iron Pipe Co. in Dallas, Texas, and Birmingham, Ala. A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Ark., where he received a bachelor&rsquo;s degree in civil engineering, Selig served as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. Outside ASTM International, Selig is a member of the Transportation Research Board, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Water Environment Federation, the Arkansas Academy of Civil Engineering, and the American Concrete Pipe Association, where he was honored with the prestigious Richard E. Barnes Award for lifetime achievement in 2010.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/october/26/roman-j-selig-receives-astm-international-award-of-merit/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/october/26/roman-j-selig-receives-astm-international-award-of-merit/Wed, 26 October 2011 16:32:35 SuperSeal™ Gasket Success on Box Culvert ProjectAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/july/20/super-seal-box-culvert-success/George R. Roberts Precast Co. of Alfred, ME was awarded a large oil-grit separator project in Waltham, MA. The purpose of the venture was to filter the oil and grit from the stormwater running off of a new BJ's Warehouse parking lot. To produce a structure large enough to accommodate the potential runoff, Roberts decided to utilize five 8-foot by 10-foot box culvert sections connected end-to-end to make one continuous tank. Even though the precaster had never used gaskets on box culvert, they opted to try Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Tylox&reg; SuperSeal&trade; 200L gaskets. On September 18, 2009, contractor J. Derenzo Company of Brockton, MA successfully and easily installed the box culvert with watertight connections, much to the satisfaction of all parties involved.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/july/20/super-seal-box-culvert-success/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/july/20/super-seal-box-culvert-success/Wed, 20 July 2011 15:51:55 Lifespan Gets an "A" from TRAAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/30/lifespan-approved-by-tra/The Lifespan System&reg; is the only integrated manhole system on the market that is specifically designed to eliminate unwanted inflow at the cover and infiltration in the chimney area. Suitable for use in either new or refurbished installations, The Lifespan System&reg; is designed to retain the hydraulic, watertight and structural integrity of the underlying concrete structure and deliver a longer service life than traditional manhole frames. In September 2010 Hamilton Kent received notification from The Road Authority (TRA) that The Lifespan System&reg; had received an "Accepted for Use" designation, or an "A", as it is commonly referred to. The "Accepted for Use" designation indicates that Lifespan has been reviewed by the Ontario Provincial Standards&rsquo; Products Management Committee and meets established criteria to be recommended as acceptable for use in Ontario, Canada. The "A", as it is commonly referred to, is a prerequisite for doing business with the Province of Ontario. Local governments in Ontario refer to the "A" as a contributing factor in their decision-making processes. Since every jurisdiction in Ontario makes its own decisions on what products to use, there is no uniform process for municipalities to accept products into their pre-qualified products lists. However, the "A" does strengthen the case for the product, and in some cases local governments have made the "A" one of the pre-requisites to being placed on their lists. This opens up a great opportunity for Hamilton Kent and the The Lifespan System&reg; throughout Ontario. The Road Authority ("TRA") is a Web site and database showcasing products and services available for use in Ontario for public right-of-way infrastructure - including roads, water mains, sewer systems, etc. TRA is owned and maintained by the Ontario Good Roads Association ("OGRA"), a non-profit organization supporting Ontario&rsquo;s public sector. The web site is used as a resource tool by the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario (MTO) and local municipalities across the province.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/30/lifespan-approved-by-tra/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/30/lifespan-approved-by-tra/Thu, 30 June 2011 16:01:35 Lifespan System® Eliminates I/I ProblemsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/29/lifespan-eliminates-inflow/The Lifespan System&reg; is the only integrated manhole system on the market that is specifically designed to eliminate unwanted flows at the cover and chimney area. It is made of the same ultra high-performance elastomers that have been used in transportation for more than 50 years. Now, applied to collection systems, they provide a watertight, naturally corrosion-proof, and highly durable frame and cover system. Suitable for use in either new or refurbished installations, The Lifespan System&reg; is designed to retain the hydraulic, watertight and structural integrity of the underlying concrete structure and deliver a longer service life. The system saves money because it outlasts anything presently available. With the Lifespan System&reg;, existing collection systems are more efficient, so the cost of increasing capacity is delayed. The system is watertight at all critical points (structure to risers, risers to frame, and frame to cover), eliminating inflow and infiltration in these areas. The cover uses a locking cam system to provide a positive seal between the cover and the frame. The Lifespan System&reg; absorbs vehicular impact, so the system and surrounding pavement remain intact, saving on costly road repairs associated with metal systems. Lifespan is also ergonomically friendly, as the frame weighs only 55 lb and the two risers weigh only 22 lb each, providing a safe, simple installation. Hamilton Kent representatives have been busy actively promoting and demonstrating The Lifespan System&reg; to cities and municipalities all over the US and Canada. If you are interested in learning more about Lifespan, please visit the Lifespan web page or contact HK at information@hamiltonkent.com or (800) 268-8479.http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/29/lifespan-eliminates-inflow/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/june/29/lifespan-eliminates-inflow/Wed, 29 June 2011 13:47:25 Successful Box Culvert Project Using TSS GasketsAlan Siebenthalerhttp://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/may/02/successful-tss-box-culvert-project/The Fall 2010 issue of NPCA's "Precast Solutions" magazine features a high profile box culvert project utilizing Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s Tylox SuperSeal gaskets in Lower Manhattan New York City, NY. The tunnel of precast box culvert sections carry combined sanitary and storm sewer water beneath the Imagination Playground at Burling Slip. Because the joints between each tunnel segment were to be hydrostatically tested after installation, the precaster, Garden State Precast, decided the best solution was purchase of new formwork with a single offset joint. By then having the ability to create box sections with very tight tolerances, they had the confidence to use Hamilton Kent&rsquo;s SuperSeal gaskets, which successfully sealed every joint at the job site. To see the complete article on this project and how SuperSeal was a winning combination with Garden State Precast&rsquo;s box culverts, click here .http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/may/02/successful-tss-box-culvert-project/
http://hamiltonkent.com/hk-blog/2011/may/02/successful-tss-box-culvert-project/Mon, 02 May 2011 11:52:15